Use of digital computers in linguistics research. The simplest examples are the use of computers to scan text and produce such aids as word lists, frequency counts, and concordances. From the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s progress was made by research groups working on machine translation and information retrieval. Theoretical CL deals with formal theories about linguistic knowledge, which today have reached a degree of complexity that can only be managed using powerful computers. Applied CL focuses on practical results of modeling human language use.
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Nonmetallic chemical element, chemical symbol Cl, atomic number 17. It is a toxic, corrosive, greenish yellow gas (as the diatomic molecule Cl2) that severely irritates the eyes and respiratory system (and was used for that purpose as a chemical-warfare agent in World War I). As the chloride ion and in the hypochlorite ion, it has valence 1; in the chlorite, chlorate, and perchlorate ions, it has higher valences. Chlorine and its compounds are important industrial materials with myriad uses in the manufacture of other chlorinated compounds (e.g., PVC, hydrochloric acid, ethylene dichloride, trichloroethylene, PCBs), in water purification (municipal systems, swimming pools), in textile industries, in flame retardants, in special batteries, and in food processing. Sodium chloride (table salt) is by far the most familiar of its compounds. Seealso bleach.
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