Enriched Meanings: Natural Language Semantics with Category Theory

The book develops a theory of enriched meanings for natural language interpretation using monads and category theory, offering a computationally well-defined way to tackle challenges at the semantics/pragmatics boundary. It provides monadic analyses of conventional implicature, substitution puzzles, and conjunction fallacies and demonstrates the compositional properties of monads model linguistic intuitions about these cases. The volume is interdisciplinary and will appeal to graduate students and researchers from a wide range of disciplines.

Format: Hardback
Length: 208 pages
Publication date: 15 September 2020
Publisher: Oxford University Press

This book presents a novel theory of enriched meanings for natural language interpretation, drawing upon concepts from category theory, a branch of mathematics with significant influence in theoretical computer science and other fields. It explores the notion of monads and related ideas to develop a framework that captures complex effects at the semantics/pragmatics boundary. The book identifies certain expressions that reside in an enriched meaning space, characterized by their ability to convey nuanced and multifaceted meanings. On the other hand, there are expressions that fall into a more basic meaning space, which are mapped to enriched meanings only when necessary for compositionally valid interpretations.

By employing the monadic theory of enriched meanings, Ash Asudeh and Gianluca Giorgolo demonstrate a formally and computationally sound approach to addressing significant challenges at the semantics/pragmatics interface. They introduce innovative monadic analyses of three phenomena: conventional implicature, substitution puzzles, and conjunction fallacies. These analyses not only provide a rigorous mathematical framework but also closely align with linguistic intuitions about these cases. The book includes exercises to facilitate understanding, accompanied by computational tools accessible on its companion website. Furthermore, it provides background chapters on enriched meanings and category theory, making it an interdisciplinary resource for graduate students and researchers across various disciplines, including semantics, pragmatics, philosophy of language, psychology, and computer science.

The book's insights are valuable for advancing our understanding of natural language processing and representation. It sheds light on the mechanisms that enable language to convey complex ideas and emotions, and it offers practical tools for developing advanced language technologies. By bridging the gap between mathematics and linguistics, this book contributes to the ongoing effort to develop more robust and accurate models of human communication.

Weight: 552g
Dimension: 180 x 252 x 21 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780198847854