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: Paperback / softback
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. These enriched meanings are mapped to basic meanings only when necessary for composition, thereby avoiding the generalization of meanings to the worst-case scenario.

Ash Asudeh and Gianluca Giorgolo, the authors of this book, demonstrate that the monadic theory of enriched meanings provides a formal and computationally sound approach to address significant challenges at the semantics/pragmatics interface. Through innovative monadic analyses, they explore three phenomena: conventional implicature, substitution puzzles, and conjunction fallacies. These analyses are accompanied by exercises to enhance understanding, and the computational tools employed are accessible on the book's companion website.

In addition to the theoretical developments, the book includes background chapters on enriched meanings and category theory, providing readers with a comprehensive foundation for understanding the theoretical framework. The volume is interdisciplinary in nature, drawing insights from semantics, pragmatics, philosophy of language, psychology, and computer science. It appeals to graduate students and researchers across a wide range of disciplines, with an interest in natural language understanding and representation.

By leveraging the power of monads and category theory, this book offers a fresh perspective on natural language interpretation, shedding light on the complexities of meaning and providing valuable insights into the computational modeling of linguistic phenomena. Its interdisciplinary approach makes it a valuable resource for scholars and practitioners alike.

Weight: 388g
Dimension: 171 x 246 x 17 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780198847861