An Inflected-Sensitive Letter and Word Prediction System
Carlo Aliprandi, Nicola Carmignani, Paolo Mancarella, Largo B. Pontecorvo · 2007
We present FastType, an innovative system for word and letter prediction for an inflected language, namely the Italian language. The system is based on combined statistical and lexical methods and it uses robust language resources. Word prediction is particularly useful to minimise keystrokes for users with special needs, and to reduce misspellings for users having limited Italian proficiency. Word prediction can be effectively used in language learning, by suggesting correct and well-formed words to non-native users. This is significant, and particularly difficult to cope with, for inflected languages such as Italian, where the correct word form depends on the context. After describing the system, we evaluate its performances and, besides the high Keystrokes Saving, we show that FastType outclasses typical word prediction limitations getting outstanding results even over a very large dictionary of words.