With this volume in honour of Don Walker, Linguistica Computazionale con tinues the series of special issues dedicated to outstanding personalities who have made a significant contribution to the progress of our discipline and maintained a special collaborative relationship with our Institute in Pisa. I take the liberty of quoting in this preface some of the initiatives Pisa and Don Walker have jointly promoted and developed during our collaboration, because I think that they might serve to illustrate some outstanding features of Don's personality, in particular his capacity for identifying areas of potential convergence among the different scientific communities within our field and establishing concrete forms of coop eration. These initiatives also testify to his continuous and untiring work, dedi cated to putting people into contact and opening up communication between them, collecting and disseminating information, knowledge and resources, and creating shareable basic infrastructures needed for progress in our field. Our collaboration began within the Linguistics in Documentation group of the FID and continued in the framework of the CCL (International Committee for Computational Linguistics). In 1982 this collaboration was strengthened when, at CO LING in Prague, I was invited by Don to join him in the organization of a series of workshops with participants of the various communities interested in the study, development, and use of computational lexica."

Originally published in 1997, this book is concerned with human language technology. This technology provides computers with the capability to handle spoken and written language. One major goal is to improve communication between humans and machines. If people can use their own language to access information, working with software applications and controlling machinery, the greatest obstacle for the acceptance of new information technology is overcome. Another important goal is to facilitate communication among people. Machines can help to translate texts or spoken input from one human language to the other. Programs that assist people in writing by checking orthography, grammar and style are constantly improving. This book was sponsored by the Directorate General XIII of the European Union and the Information Science and Engineering Directorate of the National Science Foundation, USA.

Originally published in 1997, this book is concerned with human language technology. This technology provides computers with the capability to handle spoken and written language. One major goal is to improve communication between humans and machines. If people can use their own language to access information, working with software applications and controlling machinery, the greatest obstacle for the acceptance of new information technology is overcome. Another important goal is to facilitate communication among people. Machines can help to translate texts or spoken input from one human language to the other. Programs that assist people in writing by checking orthography, grammar and style are constantly improving. This book was sponsored by the Directorate General XIII of the European Union and the Information Science and Engineering Directorate of the National Science Foundation, USA.

Computational lexicography is a fast-growing field with implications for a wide range of disciplines - theoretical linguistics, computational linguistics, cognitive science and artificial intelligence - as well as for the construction of dictionaries. The "Grosetto Workshop" brought together for the first time an international and interdisciplinary group of researchers concerned with computational lexicography. These papers, selected from the workshop, provide a baseline and a reference point for further research on problems associated with the lexicon. The collection is not merely of historical interest: it addresses many issues that are still debated today and that guide current research and development.

With this volume in honour of Don Walker, Linguistica Computazionale con tinues the series of special issues dedicated to outstanding personalities who have made a significant contribution to the progress of our discipline and maintained a special collaborative relationship with our Institute in Pisa. I take the liberty of quoting in this preface some of the initiatives Pisa and Don Walker have jointly promoted and developed during our collaboration, because I think that they might serve to illustrate some outstanding features of Don's personality, in particular his capacity for identifying areas of potential convergence among the different scientific communities within our field and establishing concrete forms of coop eration. These initiatives also testify to his continuous and untiring work, dedi cated to putting people into contact and opening up communication between them, collecting and disseminating information, knowledge and resources, and creating shareable basic infrastructures needed for progress in our field. Our collaboration began within the Linguistics in Documentation group of the FID and continued in the framework of the CCL (International Committee for Computational Linguistics). In 1982 this collaboration was strengthened when, at CO LING in Prague, I was invited by Don to join him in the organization of a series of workshops with participants of the various communities interested in the study, development, and use of computational lexica."