Verbs, nouns and affixation

What explains the rich patterns of deverbal nominalization? Why do some nouns have argument structure, while others do not? We seek a solution in which properties of deverbal nouns are composed from properties of verbs, properties of nouns, and properties of the morphemes that relate them. The theory of each plus the theory of howthey combine, should give the explanation. In exploring this, we investigate properties of two theories of nominalization. In one, the verb-like properties of deverbal nouns result from verbal syntactic structure (a “structural model”). See, for example, van Hout & Roeper 1998, Fu, Roeper and Borer 1993, 2001, to appear, Alexiadou 2001, to appear). According to the structural hypothesis, some nouns contain VPs and/or verbal functional layers. In the other theory, the verbal properties of deverbal nouns result from the event structure and argument structure of the DPs that they head. By “event structure” we mean a representation of the elements and structure of a linguistic event, not a representation of the world. We refer to this view as the “event model”. According to the event model hypothesis, all derived nouns are represented with the same syntactic structure, the difference lying in argument structure – which in turn is critically related to event structure, in the way sketched in Grimshaw (1990), Siloni (1997) among others. In pursuing these lines of analysis, and at least to some extent disentangling their properties, we reach the conclusion that, with respect to a core set of phenomena, the two theories are remarkably similar – specifically, they achieve success with the same problems, and must resort to the same stipulations to address the remaining issues that we discuss (although the stipulations are couched in different forms)

Groupoid Semantics for Thermal Computing

A groupoid semantics is presented for systems with both logical and thermal degrees of freedom. We apply this to a syntactic model for encryption, and obtain an algebraic characterization of the heat produced by the encryption function, as predicted by Landauer's principle. Our model has a linear representation theory that reveals an underlying quantum semantics, giving for the first time a functorial classical model for quantum teleportation and other quantum phenomena.Comment: We describe a groupoid model for thermodynamic computation, and a quantization procedure that turns encrypted communication into quantum teleportation. Everything is done using higher category theor

Categorified cyclic operads

In this paper, we introduce a notion of categorified cyclic operad for set-based cyclic operads with symmetries. Our categorification is obtained by relaxing defining axioms of cyclic operads to isomorphisms and by formulating coherence conditions for these isomorphisms. The coherence theorem that we prove has the form "all diagrams of canonical isomorphisms commute". Our coherence results come in two flavours, corresponding to the "entries-only" and "exchangeable-output" definitions of cyclic operads. Our proof of coherence in the entries-only style is of syntactic nature and relies on the coherence of categorified non-symmetric operads established by Do\v{s}en and Petri\'c. We obtain the coherence in the exchangeable-output style by "lifting" the equivalence between entries-only and exchangeable-output cyclic operads, set up by the second author. Finally, we show that a generalisation of the structure of profunctors of B\' enabou provides an example of categorified cyclic operad, and we exploit the coherence of categorified cyclic operads in proving that the Feynman category for cyclic operads, due to Kaufmann and Ward, admits an odd version.Comment: 57 page

Semantic form as interface

The term interface had a remarkable career over the past several decades, motivated largely by its use in computer science. Although the concept of a "surface common to two areas" (Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, 1980) is intuitively clear enough, the range of its application is not very sharp and well defined, a "common surface" is open to a wide range of interpretations

Deriving Abstract Interpreters from Skeletal Semantics

This paper describes a methodology for defining an executable abstract interpreter from a formal description of the semantics of a programming language. Our approach is based on Skeletal Semantics and an abstract interpretation of its semantic meta-language. The correctness of the derived abstract interpretation can be established by compositionality provided that correctness properties of the core language-specific constructs are established. We illustrate the genericness of our method by defining a Value Analysis for a small imperative language based on its skeletal semantics.Comment: In Proceedings EXPRESS/SOS2023, arXiv:2309.0578

The Xeros data model: tracking interpretations of archaeological finds

At an archaeological dig, interpretations are built around discovered artifacts based on measurements and informed intuition. These interpretations are semi-structured and organic, yet existing tools do not capture their creation or evolution. Patina of Notes (PoN) is an application designed to tackle this, and is underpinned by the Xeros data model. Xeros is a graph structure and a set of operations that can deal with the addition, edition, and removal of interpretations. This data model is a specialisation of the W3C PROV provenance data model, tracking the evolution of interpretations. The model is presented, with operations defined formally, and characteristics of the representation that are beneficial to implementations are discussed

Toward a Cognitive Classical Linguistics. The Embodied Basis of Constructions in Greek and Latin

The volume that gathers a series of papers bringing together the study of grammatical and syntactic constructions in Greek and Latin under the perspective of theories of embodied meaning developed in cognitive linguistics