Science fiction is a field of literature that has great interest and great controversy among its writers and critics. This book examines the roots, history, development, current status, and future directions of the field through articles contributed by well-respected science fiction writers, teachers, and critics. The articles 'speculate' on what is science fiction, is science fiction serious literature, which writers are considered good science fiction writers, and where the genre of science fiction is headed with 21st-century writers. Contributors include Brian W. Aldiss, Kathryn Cramer, Samuel R. Delany, David G. Hartwell, Ursula K. Le Guin, Barry N. Malzberg, Darko Suvin, Michael Swanwick, and many other outstanding authors. Examining all genres and subgenres of science fiction writing, this book provides differing viewpoints on science fiction, making it a great basis for dynamic classroom discussions.

The work documents two linguistically well-grounded grammar fragments for German and French developed in the framework of maschine translation. The grammars are based on the theory of Lexical-Functional Grammar, relate to central areas of German and French syntax and thus represent one of the few implementations of major grammar fragments based on a well-founded theory of grammar. Given the modular architecture of the translation system, the use of the grammars thus derived is not limited to maschine translation alone. The individual grammars for the respective languages can also be used in other areas of language processing (knowledge-based systems, data-bank inquiry systems etc.).