Speech and Language Processing
Speech and Language Processing by Jurafsky and Martinby Jurafsky and Martin
Shares rank 6 of 28 computer science textbooks by recommenders
Recommended as a broad introduction to speech and language processing that covers modern topics such as LLMs, transformers and embeddings.
Recommended as a broad introduction to speech and language processing that covers modern topics such as LLMs, transformers and embeddings.
7 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 7
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 3 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 7 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 3 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Covers LLMs, transformers and embeddings
“with chapters that deal specifically with LLMs and transformers”
Comment from 6 Jun 2026 in “How LLMs Work” “which is modern and goes all the way to LLMs, embeddings etc.”
Comment from 20 Nov 2025 in “Ask HN: How are Markov chains so different from tiny LLMs?”
Other computer science textbooks people recommend
The four most recommended other computer science textbooks, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programsby Abelson and Sussman | 55 | 5 | 92% | 12 | — | Approved |
| The Art of Computer Programmingby Donald E. Knuth | 28 | 6 | 82% | 10 | — | Approved |
| Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programsby Abelson and Sussman | 12 | 0 | 100% | 9 | — | Approved |
| Quantum Computation and Quantum Informationby Nielsen and Chuang | 12 | 0 | 100% | 3 | — | — |
| Speech and Language Processingby Jurafsky and MartinThis page | 7 | 0 | 100% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
6 of the 7 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“with chapters that deal specifically with LLMs and transformers”
“coupled with the textbook (chapters 1-13)”
“This is the broadest introductory book for beginners and a must-read”
“Good old Jurafsky and Martin.”
“a better framing would be that it is _grounded_”
“which is modern and goes all the way to LLMs, embeddings etc.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.