5 ms·

The Mathematics of Text Structure

89 points by mathgenius 7y ago

nni 7y ago
here's a short video on "DisCoCat" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99keybEZN4g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99keybEZN4g
- jgtrosh 7y ago
  The first example lacks punch because “rabbit chasing dog” can mean a dog which chases rabbits (even though their point is valid in general).
  - nni 7y ago
    good point - but if you actually search for "rabbit chasing dog", you do get a rabbit chasing a dog video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBYdaPacHJg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBYdaPacHJg, as well as some for the other way around In this case, could you even know which one was actually meant? Technically, I'd think that the ambiguity is removed when you use "rabbit-chasing dog", but that is assuming the text available is sufficiently precise.
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
  - afthonos 7y ago
    I’ve always seen that hyphenated: “rabbit-chasing dog”.
adamnemecek 7y ago
The author's wiki photo is one of a kind https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Coecke https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Coecke
- flocial 7y ago
  The photo on his official page kicks it up a notch. http://www.cs.ox.ac.uk/people/bob.coecke/ http://www.cs.ox.ac.uk/people/bob.coecke/
crawfordcomeaux 7y ago
I'm waiting for the DisCoCirc string diagram version of this paper to come out before reading it.
- mathgenius 7y ago
  What are you talking about? This is the string diagram version.
  - crawfordcomeaux 7y ago
    It's a joke. I'd like a giant string diagram representing the meaning of the paper, not the paper.
mci 7y ago
We need someone like https://twitter.com/justsaysinmice https://twitter.com/justsaysinmice, tagging NLP papers with "in English". The DisCoCat examples look like another riff on categorial grammar [1], which is not too adequate for languages with the concept of noun case. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categorial_grammar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categorial_grammar
- stereolambda 7y ago
  This is true, seeing the title I was thinking of someone just rediscovering some fun tricks of Montague. Although I think in principle nothing stops categorial grammar from working for inflected languages if we agree to do some preprocessing/intermediate metalanguage conversion. The semantics of cases is largely analogous to what would be accomplished with prepositions in English. Anyway, I love the analogy on the page 4. He says that data-driven models in NLP (such as neural nets) may be similar to stacking Ptoleme's epicycles: they could fit the data better than simpler models from Copernicus to Newton, until we got the ~correct simple model understanding with Einstein. I don't know if this will be actually true for language, but I like it.
- mathgenius 7y ago
  Indeed, Lambek was one of the founders of categorical grammer, and from the article: """ Around 2004 I was giving a talk at the McGill category Theory seminar about our then new diagrammatic description of quantum teleportation. Lambek immediately pointed out: “Those are pre-groups!” The compact closed category-theory underpinning of quantum theory, have indeed pregroups as the posetal instance. It was this connection, between grammar and teleportation diagrams, that inspired the DisCoCat model, making it look as if word-meaning being teleported around in sentences by means of the channels provided by the pregroup grammar """
kouh 7y ago
Is there further recent research following this direction?
- benrbray 7y ago
  This was published at the 2019 Conference on Applied Category Theory (ACT). You might find the other accepted papers interesting: http://www.cs.ox.ac.uk/ACT2019/ http://www.cs.ox.ac.uk/ACT2019/

89 points by mathgenius 7y ago

nni 7y ago

here's a short video on "DisCoCat" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99keybEZN4g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99keybEZN4g

jgtrosh 7y ago
The first example lacks punch because “rabbit chasing dog” can mean a dog which chases rabbits (even though their point is valid in general).
- nni 7y ago
  good point - but if you actually search for "rabbit chasing dog", you do get a rabbit chasing a dog video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBYdaPacHJg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBYdaPacHJg, as well as some for the other way around In this case, could you even know which one was actually meant? Technically, I'd think that the ambiguity is removed when you use "rabbit-chasing dog", but that is assuming the text available is sufficiently precise.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
- afthonos 7y ago
  I’ve always seen that hyphenated: “rabbit-chasing dog”.

adamnemecek 7y ago

The author's wiki photo is one of a kind https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Coecke https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Coecke

flocial 7y ago
The photo on his official page kicks it up a notch. http://www.cs.ox.ac.uk/people/bob.coecke/ http://www.cs.ox.ac.uk/people/bob.coecke/

crawfordcomeaux 7y ago

I'm waiting for the DisCoCirc string diagram version of this paper to come out before reading it.

mathgenius 7y ago
What are you talking about? This is the string diagram version.
- crawfordcomeaux 7y ago
  It's a joke. I'd like a giant string diagram representing the meaning of the paper, not the paper.

mci 7y ago

We need someone like https://twitter.com/justsaysinmice https://twitter.com/justsaysinmice, tagging NLP papers with "in English". The DisCoCat examples look like another riff on categorial grammar [1], which is not too adequate for languages with the concept of noun case. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categorial_grammar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categorial_grammar

stereolambda 7y ago
This is true, seeing the title I was thinking of someone just rediscovering some fun tricks of Montague. Although I think in principle nothing stops categorial grammar from working for inflected languages if we agree to do some preprocessing/intermediate metalanguage conversion. The semantics of cases is largely analogous to what would be accomplished with prepositions in English. Anyway, I love the analogy on the page 4. He says that data-driven models in NLP (such as neural nets) may be similar to stacking Ptoleme's epicycles: they could fit the data better than simpler models from Copernicus to Newton, until we got the ~correct simple model understanding with Einstein. I don't know if this will be actually true for language, but I like it.
mathgenius 7y ago
Indeed, Lambek was one of the founders of categorical grammer, and from the article: """ Around 2004 I was giving a talk at the McGill category Theory seminar about our then new diagrammatic description of quantum teleportation. Lambek immediately pointed out: “Those are pre-groups!” The compact closed category-theory underpinning of quantum theory, have indeed pregroups as the posetal instance. It was this connection, between grammar and teleportation diagrams, that inspired the DisCoCat model, making it look as if word-meaning being teleported around in sentences by means of the channels provided by the pregroup grammar """

kouh 7y ago

Is there further recent research following this direction?

benrbray 7y ago
This was published at the 2019 Conference on Applied Category Theory (ACT). You might find the other accepted papers interesting: http://www.cs.ox.ac.uk/ACT2019/ http://www.cs.ox.ac.uk/ACT2019/