Natural Language Processing Cookbook

Natural language processing (NLP) is revolutionizing how machines understand and interact with human language, creating powerful applications from chatbots to text analytics. This provides a practical, hands-on approach to mastering these technologies, making complex NLP concepts accessible through step-by-step recipes and real-world examples.

This book walks you through the world of teaching computers to understand human language, starting with the basics and building up to advanced techniques. You will learn how to break down text into meaningful pieces, use Python programming to handle text data, and clean up messy text for analysis. The book shows you how computers can understand the meaning behind words using methods like word embeddings and BERT. You will discover how to identify parts of speech and recognize names of people and places in text, and how to sort text into different categories using ML. Advanced topics include finding hidden themes in document collections, building chatbots that can have conversations, and creating visual representations of text data. Throughout the book, practical Python examples help you implement these techniques while considering how to evaluate and deploy real-world NLP systems.

By the time you complete this book, you will possess the technical proficiency to implement complete NLP pipelines from preprocessing to deployment. The recipe-based approach ensures you can immediately apply these techniques to solve real business problems.

KEY FEATURES  
● Step-by-step approach for each technique, with practical examples to fully master NLP.
● Add value to your data by mastering the most important NLP techniques.
● Readily usable recipes for implementing basic tasks like data cleaning and tokenization to more complicated neural network implementations.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN
● Preprocess and clean text for accurate NLP model performance.
● Apply ML techniques for text classification tasks.
● Extract key insights using semantic analysis and embeddings.
● Develop and fine-tune topic modeling algorithms.
● Build intelligent chatbots with dialogue management and intent detection.
● Visualize text data with word clouds and entity graphs.

WHO THIS BOOK IS FOR
This book is ideal for data scientists, programmers, business analysts, and students with basic Python knowledge who want to build practical NLP skills. Whether you are an AI enthusiast looking to enter the field or a professional seeking to add language processing capabilities to your toolkit, you will find actionable recipes that bridge theory and application.

1. Getting Started with NLP
2. Python for Text Processing
3. Text Processing and Cleaning
4. Semantic Representation
5. Part-of-speech Tagging and Named Entity Recognition
6. Text Classification
7. Advanced Techniques for Topic Modeling
8. Building a Chatbot
9. Text Data Visualization Techniques
10. Conclusion and Takeaways

Rosario Moscato holds a master’s degree in electronic engineering from Federico II University (Naples) and a master’s degree in internet software design from CEFRIEL (Milan). Additionally, he obtained a diploma in apologetics and a master’s degree in science and faith from the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum (Rome). With over 25 years of experience, he has dedicated his career to the development and optimization of innovative technologies within international companies across Europe and Asia, covering highly technical, commercial, and business development roles. In recent years, Rosario has focused exclusively on artificial intelligence and data science, aiming to enhance business competitiveness through machine learning and deep learning technologies while also exploring the ethical and philosophical implications of AI advancements. He is the author of four books, a speaker at international research centers and conferences, a trainer, and a technical/scientific consultant in the evolving field of AI. Additionally, he contributes as a columnist for a weekly magazine and is a frequent guest on television programs. Currently, he serves as Chief Technical Officer (CTO) and Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer (CAIO) at one of Italy’s longest- established AI companies.

Alessio Ligios is a dynamic engineer specializing in data science, based in Rome. At 32 years old, he holds a master’s degree in Computer Science from Università degli Studi “Roma Tre,” graduating with a distinguished score of 110/110. This solid academic foundation has equipped him with the skills to transform complex datasets into actionable business solutions. Professionally, Alessio excels in developing and implementing advanced machine learning and deep learning algorithms, focusing on predictive modeling and textual content classification. He is a passionate problem solver dedicated to enhancing his technical skills to provide data-driven insights that inform strategic business decisions. His work reflects a commitment to leveraging data science to drive impactful results across various industries.

Corrado Silvestri is a computer engineer. He earned a master’s degree from “Roma Tre” University with a GPA of 100/110. Passionate about the realm of AI and ML, he has produced models and projects of many types, such as forecasting, NLP, and computer vision, establishing the groundwork for his present position as a data scientist at a company that is verticalized in AI. An expert in the analytical phase and data manipulation, he has implemented AI models and solutions, expanded his technical experience and excelling in this field. He is a specialist at finding the perfect compromise by combining engineering expertise, data manipulation, and AI to build cutting-edge solutions for businesses in a variety of industries.