###############################################################
###           Natural Language Toolkit (NLTK-LITE)          ###
###~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~###
### Copyright (C) 2006 University of Pennsylvania           ###
### Author: Steven Bird <[email protected]>            ###
###         Edward Loper <[email protected]>   ###
### URL: <http://nltk.sourceforge.net>                      ###
### For license information, see LICENSE.TXT                ###
###############################################################

Introduction
~~~~~~~~~~~~

    NLTK, the Natural Language Toolkit, is a suite of program
    modules, data sets and tutorials supporting research and teaching in
    computational linguistics and natural language processing.</p>

    NLTK is ideally suited to students who are learning NLP (natural
    language processing) or conducting research in NLP or closely
    related areas, including empirical linguistics, cognitive science,
    artificial intelligence, information retrieval, and machine
    learning.  NLTK has been used successfully as a teaching tool, as an
    individual study tool, and as a platform for prototyping and
    building research systems. </p>

Documentation
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    A substantial amount of documentation about how to use NLTK is
    available from the nltk homepage: http://nltk.sourceforge.net

    In particular, the NLTK homepage contains three types of
    documentation:

      - Tutorials teach students how to use the toolkit, in the
        context of performing specific tasks. They are appropriate for
        anyone who wishes to learn how to use the toolkit.
        http://nltk.sourceforge.net/lite/doc/en/

      - The toolkit's reference documentation describes every module,
        interface, class, method, function, and variable in the
        toolkit. This documentation should be useful to both users and
        developers.  
        http://nltk.sourceforge.net/lite/doc/api/

      - A number of technical reports are available. These reports
        explain and justify the toolkit's design and
        implementation. They are used by the developers of the toolkit
        to guide and document the toolkit's construction. Students can
        consult these reports if they would like further information
        about how the toolkit is designed and why it is designed that
        way.  
        http://nltk.sourceforge.net/tech/

Mailing Lists
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    There are four mailing lists associated with NTLK:
      - nltk-announce: Public information and announcements
        about NLTK (very low volume)
      - nltk-devel: Discussions between NLTK developers
      - nltk-commits: Subversion commit logs for NLTK
      - nltk-teach: Discussions between people teaching courses using NLTK (closed list)

    To subscribe:
      - <http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/nltk-announce>
      - <http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/nltk-devel>
      - <http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/nltk-commits>
      - nltk-teach: please contact Steven Bird <[email protected]>

    Archives:
      - <http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?forum=nltk-announce>
      - <http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?forum=nltk-devel>
      - <http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?forum=nltk-commits>


Contributing
~~~~~~~~~~~~

    If you are interested in contributing to NLTK, please email
    Steven Bird <[email protected]> and Edward Loper
    <[email protected]>


Redistributing
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    NLTK source code is distributed under the Gnu Public License.
    NLTK documentation is distributed under the Creative Commons
    Sharealike License.  NLTK may be freely redistributed, subject to
    the provisions of these licenses.

Citing
~~~~~~

    Please cite NLTK as follows:
    Bird, Steven and Edward Loper (2006).  Natural Language Toolkit.
    http://nltk.sourceforge.net/