The Mathematics of Text Structure

DOI10.1007/978-3-030-66545-6_6zbMATH Open1482.81006arXiv1904.03478OpenAlexW2935480125MaRDI QIDQ5014597FDOQ5014597

Authors: Bob Coecke 

Publication date: 8 December 2021

Published in: Joachim Lambek: The Interplay of Mathematics, Logic, and Linguistics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: In previous work we gave a mathematical foundation, referred to as DisCoCat, for how words interact in a sentence in order to produce the meaning of that sentence. To do so, we exploited the perfect structural match of grammar and categories of meaning spaces. Here, we give a mathematical foundation, referred to as DisCoCirc, for how sentences interact in texts in order to produce the meaning of that text. First we revisit DisCoCat. While in DisCoCat all meanings are fixed as states (i.e. have no input), in DisCoCirc word meanings correspond to a type, or system, and the states of this system can evolve. Sentences are gates within a circuit which update the variable meanings of those words. Like in DisCoCat, word meanings can live in a variety of spaces e.g. propositional, vectorial, or cognitive. The compositional structure are string diagrams representing information flows, and an entire text yields a single string diagram in which word meanings lift to the meaning of an entire text. While the developments in this paper are independent of a physical embodiment (cf. classical vs. quantum computing), both the compositional formalism and suggested meaning model are highly quantum-inspired, and implementation on a quantum computer would come with a range of benefits. We also praise Jim Lambek for his role in mathematical linguistics in general, and the development of the DisCo program more specifically.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1904.03478

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Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Quantum computation (81P68) Automata and formal grammars in connection with logical questions (03D05) Grammars and rewriting systems (68Q42) Summability and bases; functional analytic aspects of frames in Banach and Hilbert spaces (46B15) Hilbert and pre-Hilbert spaces: geometry and topology (including spaces with semidefinite inner product) (46C05) Linguistics (91F20) Braided monoidal categories and ribbon categories (18M15)

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Cited In (7)

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• A mathematical model for context and word-meaning
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• DisCoCat for Donkey Sentences
• Coherent diagrammatic reasoning in compositional distributional semantics
• A categorical semantics of fuzzy concepts in conceptual spaces
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