Can you solve these language puzzles? Test your skills with these problems from North America’s largest language competition
For 20 years, this computational linguistics competition has inspired new generations of innovators in AI and language preservation.
By Emma R. Hasson edited by Sarah Lewin Frasier
The North American Computational Linguistics Open Competition attracts hundreds of middle and high school competitors from across the United States and Canada.
Javier Zayas Photography/Getty Images
In January, middle and high school students from more than 200 host sites in the United States and parts of Canada participated in the North American Computational Linguistics Open Competition (NACLO), which involves finding and applying linguistic models to solve tricky language puzzles.
The more than 250 students who scored above the cut-off were invited to participate in the locally-organized invitational event today, and eight or 12 eligible winners will travel to Bucharest, Romania, for the 23rd annual International Linguistics Olympiad (IOL) in July.
These students represent the future of computational linguistics, a field that uses computers and algorithmic methods to detect and understand language patterns. Interest in this field has skyrocketed as coders have used linguistic principles to build and improve large language models, which power much of today’s generative artificial intelligence. According to Lori Levin, one of the founders of NACLO and a computational linguist at Carnegie Mellon University, computational linguistics is a two-way street: “Either you use a computer to do things with human language or to communicate, translate, or teach a foreign language, or you use computer techniques to learn something about human languages.” » His work documenting and preserving endangered languages uses a bit of both.
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Tom McCoy, a former NACLO winner and current competition organizer and computational linguistics researcher at Yale University, works to bridge the gap between how language is handled in major linguistic models and how it is described in linguistic theory. “This involves trying to understand what’s going on inside AI systems that process language, like ChatGPT, and then understanding how we can use these AI systems to give us insight into the human mind,” says McCoy.
According to McCoy, who also writes crosswords for the New York Timeswriting and problem solving NACLO has a similar feel to what he does as a linguist. “It’s really about trying to replicate the problem-solving experience that linguists face,” he says. “I owe my career to NACLO…I never would have discovered this field in time to join it if I hadn’t done it in high school. And I’m certainly not the only one.”
Many NACLO participants end up working on computational linguistics in academia or industry; others pursue studies in mathematics, computer science, chemistry or physics. “Regardless of what people end up doing, it’s a great way for people to practice their problem-solving skills,” says Cerulean Ozarow, one of the 2020 NACLO winners and a math teacher at Hunter College High School.
When Levin was asked about founding a North American computational linguistics competition in 2006, his response was: “I will, without a doubt.” Soon after, the late computational linguist Dragomir Radev heard of Levin’s efforts; he called her and said, “I’ll be here whether or not you have the space and money for me.” » The enthusiasm of NACLO co-founders, including Levin and Radev, to share computational linguistics with the world was reflected in the philosophy of the competition, first held in 2007 and run solely through volunteer work. Levin strives to serve “all students, not just those who are going to win.” She and other NACLO organizers hope to reach even more students by adding an additional introductory round with more accessible questions.
Levin’s favorite part about running NACLO is “seeing the lights go on” for participants who want to become linguists themselves or who are simply having fun with the language and discovering new linguistic possibilities. “Typically, linguistics isn’t taught in school,” Levin says, “and so when you solve an NACLO puzzle, you suddenly see a way that language can be that you might not have thought of.”
Below, you can try five puzzles adapted from past NACLO competition problems for yourself and learn more about language, not to mention AI language models.
Find your place in Warlpiri
Warlpiri is a language spoken by approximately 3,000 people in Central Australia. Below you will find some sentences in Warlpiri, as well as English translations. Can you determine what is happening in the empty cells?
Game: Set Match
Associate each word with a numbered label so Venn diagrams are accurate. (For example, a circle titled “chihuahua” would be completely enclosed within a circle titled “dog.” A circle titled “large animal” would intersect a circle titled “dog” but not “chihuahua.”)
Each number goes with the circle it touches, except 8, which goes with the intersection of circles 7 and 10.
Suspected spies are people who have been accused of being spies but may or may not be spies.
The phrase “small and large elephants” can be confusing without context. Here’s an example where this might happen: “It’s a big elephant, but compared to other big elephants it’s relatively small; it’s a little big elephant.”
We assume that cars cannot be both green and purple.
In this problem, we use the informal definition of the word berry, in which strawberries are a type of berry (even though there is a technical definition of the word berry that excludes strawberries).
We assume that elephants cannot be spies. In real life, this is a dangerous assumption to make.
In the Scottish Highlands
Match each Scottish Gaelic expression with its meaning in English:
Not entirely true
A large language model (LLM) called NacloChat attempted to decipher a series of expressions. Each letter in the coded sentences systematically represents another letter once decoded. The LLM got one letter wrong in each case. Can you fill out the rest of the table?
Color me confused
Below is a table of words used to describe color in different languages:
Can you determine which letter corresponds to which column in the rules below for language and color?
Every language has at least two basic color terms that distinguish between (A) and (B).
If he has three or more, he uses different words for each of (A), (B) and (C). If it contains only three, the same word is used for (B) and (D).
If it has five or more, it distinguishes between (B) and (D) and also has a unique word for (E).
If he has at least six, he distinguishes (D) from (F).
A language only has a unique word for (G) if it also has one for (H). If it does not have a unique word for (H), (G) will share a word with at least one of (A), (D) or (F).
These rules are simplified from a set proposed by anthropologist Brent Berlin and linguist Paul Kay in 1969. We now know that they are not entirely true for all languages, although they accurately describe most.
If you enjoyed these puzzles, you can find the full versions, along with hundreds of others, at the official NACLO website.
Find your place in Warlpiri
A. The dog is lying on the horse.
b. Marlu is my mother.
Game: Set Match
1. G, 2. B, 3. R, 4. D, 5. O, 6. E, 7. I, 8. J, 9. M, 10. L, 11. A, 12. Q, 13. H, 14. K, 15. F, 16. P, 17. C, 18. N
In the Scottish Highlands
1. I, 2. M, 3. A, 4. K, 5. G, 6. L, 7. F, 8. C, 9. J, 10. D, 11. E, 12. O, 13. N, 14. H, 15. B
Not entirely true
A. finally the lime arrived
b. they chanted official policy
c. he stuffed the poster into a tuba
d. they left in a boot
e. they left by boat
f. we must be kind to every otter
g. we must be kind to each other
Color me confused
A: fresh snow, B: adult crow, C: ripe strawberry, D: fresh grass, E: ripe banana, F: deep ocean, G: clear sky
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