# A Quantum Natural Language Processing Approach to Pronoun Resolution

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2208.05393 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.05393/

## Key facts

- Cited by 2 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 14 of its 37 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 10 Aug 2022.

## Builds on (most cited first, 14 of 14)

- [Supervised learning with quantum enhanced feature spaces](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1804.11326/) (2018)
- [QNLP in Practice: Running Compositional Models of Meaning on a Quantum Computer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.12846/) (2021)
- [lambeq: An Efficient High-Level Python Library for Quantum NLP](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.04236/) (2021)
- [Quantum Natural Language Processing on Near-Term Quantum Computers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.04147/) (2020)
- [The Frobenius anatomy of word meanings I: subject and object relative pronouns](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1404.5278/) (2014)
- [Lambek vs. Lambek: Functorial Vector Space Semantics and String Diagrams for Lambek Calculus](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1302.0393/) (2013)
- [The Frobenius anatomy of word meanings II: possessive relative pronouns](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1406.4690/) (2014)
- [A Frobenius Algebraic Analysis for Parasitic Gaps](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.05639/) (2020)
- [Vector Space Semantics for Lambek Calculus with Soft Subexponentials](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.11331/) (2021)
- [Undecidability of the Lambek calculus with a relevant modality](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1601.06303/) (2016)
- [LOv-Calculus: A Graphical Language for Linear Optical Quantum Circuits](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.11787/) (2022)
- [Computational Coverage of TLG: Nonlinearity](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.03033/) (2017)
- [Classical Copying versus Quantum Entanglement in Natural Language: The Case of VP-ellipsis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1811.03276/) (2018)
- [Quantum Linear Optics via String Diagrams](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.12985/) (2022)

## Built on by (most cited first, 2 of 2)

- [Towards Transparency in Coreference Resolution: A Quantum-Inspired Approach](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.00688/) (2023)
- [Quantum Methods for Managing Ambiguity in Natural Language Processing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.00040/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

We use the Lambek Calculus with soft sub-exponential modalities to model and reason about discourse relations such as anaphora and ellipsis. A semantics for this logic is obtained by using truncated Fock spaces, developed in our previous work. We depict these semantic computations via a new string diagram. The Fock Space semantics has the advantage that its terms are learnable from large corpora of data using machine learning and they can be experimented with on mainstream natural language tasks. Further, and thanks to an existing translation from vector spaces to quantum circuits, we can also learn these terms on quantum computers and their simulators, such as the IBMQ range. We extend the existing translation to Fock spaces and develop quantum circuit semantics for discourse relations. We then experiment with the IBMQ AerSimulations of these circuits in a definite pronoun resolution task, where the highest accuracies were recorded for models when the anaphora was resolved.