mlsanityData to 14 Oct 2026

Compositionality as we see it, everywhere around us

arXiv 2110.05327 ↗First posted 11 Oct 2021math.CT cs.AI cs.LOcited by 11

Not on the map. Why?

Abstract (arXiv)

There are different meanings of the term "compositionality" within science: what one researcher would call compositional, is not at all compositional for another researcher. The most established conception is usually attributed to Frege, and is characterised by a bottom-up flow of meanings: the meaning of the whole can be derived from the meanings of the parts, and how these parts are structured together. Inspired by work on compositionality in quantum theory, and categorical quantum mechanics in particular, we propose the notions of Schrodinger, Whitehead, and complete compositionality. Accounting for recent important developments in quantum technology and artificial intelligence, these do not have the bottom-up meaning flow as part of their definitions. Schrodinger compositionality accommodates quantum theory, and also meaning-as-context. Complete compositionality further strengthens Schrodinger compositionality in order to single out theories like ZX-calculus, that are complete with regard to the intended model. All together, our new notions aim to capture the fact that compositionality is at its best when it is `real', `non-trivial', and even more when it also is `complete'. At this point we only put forward the intuitive and/or restricted formal definitions, and leave a fully comprehensive definition to future collaborative work.

Key facts. Cited by 11 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Builds on 22 of its 116 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 11 Oct 2021.

Builds on

22 of 116 references.

References · 22

  1. 2021QNLP in Practice: Running Compositional Models of Meaning on a Quantum Computercited by 67
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  3. 2021lambeq: An Efficient High-Level Python Library for Quantum NLPcited by 44
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  8. 2019The Mathematics of Text Structurecited by 24
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  12. 2017Interacting Conceptual Spaces I : Grammatical Composition of Conceptscited by 13
10 more
  1. 2020Meaning updating of density matricescited by 9
  2. 2021Grammar Equationscited by 7
  3. 2021How to make qubits speakcited by 5
  4. 2013A quantum teleportation inspired algorithm produces sentence meaning from word meaning and grammatical structurecited by 4
  5. 2015A Diagrammatic Axiomatisation for Qubit Entanglementcited by 4
  6. 2017The ZX calculus is a language for surface code lattice surgerycited by 4
  7. 2021Kindergarden quantum mechanics graduates (...or how I learned to stop gluing LEGO together and love the ZX-calculus)cited by 4
  8. 2021Talking Space: inference from spatial linguistic meaningscited by 4
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  10. 2016From quantum foundations via natural language meaning to a theory of everythingcited by 2

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Cited by year (2026 to 14 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2021: 1; 2022: 1; 2023: 1; 2024: 2; 2025: 3; 2026: 3.

11 papers.