Spell Checking Algorithms

1. Introduction

Computers have been used to solve problem automatically through complex programs to assist a user. Computational linguistics, also known as natural language processing (NLP), is a field that specializes in computer science and linguistics that deals with the analysis and processing of human languages using computers. NLP has many applications, which includes Automatic Summarization, Machine Translation, Part-of-Speech Tagging (POS), Speech Recognition (ASR), Optical Character Recognition (OCR), and Information Retrieval (IR). Spell checking is yet another significant application of computational linguistics whose research extends back to the early seventies when Ralph Gorin built the first spell checker. Today, spell check is very important and is used every day in Microsoft word and in search engines. In this paper I will discuss how spell check works. [1]

2. Origin

In 1961, Les Earnest led the research on this budding technology. Earnest saw it essential to include ten thousand acceptable words in the first spell checker. [2] A graduate student taught by Les Earnest named Ralph Gorin created the first true spelling checker program written as an application for general English text called SPELL.[3] Gorin made the first spelling corrector by searching the word list for probable correct spellings that differ by a single letter or adjacent letter switches and presenting them to the user. Gorin made SPELL public, and it soon spread around the world about ten years before personal computers came into general use. The first spell checkers were mainly offered on mainframe computers in the late 1970s. Six linguists from Georgetown University created the first spell check system for the IBM Corporation. [4]The first ...

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...it is past tense or present tense. Spell check can also make sure you are using the correct word when a common mistake is made like to or too. Spell check will only improve in the future because it is very helpful in everyday life. [3]Every application from Microsoft office to email and web browsing uses spell check and is very beneficial.

6. Conclusion

Spell check is found in many applications for computers and system wide in Mac computers. It takes a misspelled word and offers suggestions based on the text. Even if the misspelled word is in the dictionary, spell check can detect the correct word to use in the body of text. Spell check is now included in many word processors and you can also find it useful while using a search engine. Even though it can’t point out every error like names and other non-everyday words, spell check is very efficient and helpful.