mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

Identifying the Correlation Between Language Distance and Cross-Lingual Transfer in a Multilingual Representation Space

arXiv 2305.02151 ↗First posted 3 May 2023cs.CL cs.AI cs.LGcited by 12

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Abstract (arXiv)

Prior research has investigated the impact of various linguistic features on cross-lingual transfer performance. In this study, we investigate the manner in which this effect can be mapped onto the representation space. While past studies have focused on the impact on cross-lingual alignment in multilingual language models during fine-tuning, this study examines the absolute evolution of the respective language representation spaces produced by MLLMs. We place a specific emphasis on the role of linguistic characteristics and investigate their inter-correlation with the impact on representation spaces and cross-lingual transfer performance. Additionally, this paper provides preliminary evidence of how these findings can be leveraged to enhance transfer to linguistically distant languages.

Key facts. Cited by 12 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Builds on 15 of its 33 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 3 May 2023.

Builds on

15 of 33 references.

References · 15

  1. 2018BERT: Pre-training of Deep Bidirectional Transformers for Language Understandingcited by 40,204
  2. 2019PyTorch: An Imperative Style, High-Performance Deep Learning Librarycited by 20,160
  3. 2019Unsupervised Cross-lingual Representation Learning at Scalecited by 3,907
  4. 2017A Broad-Coverage Challenge Corpus for Sentence Understanding through Inferencecited by 2,665
  5. 2019Similarity of Neural Network Representations Revisitedcited by 1,695
  6. 2018XNLI: Evaluating Cross-lingual Sentence Representationscited by 913
  7. 2019Beto, Bentz, Becas: The Surprising Cross-Lingual Effectiveness of BERTcited by 301
  8. 2020What Happens To BERT Embeddings During Fine-tuning?cited by 113
  9. 2022The Geometry of Multilingual Language Model Representationscited by 94
  10. 2020On the Language Neutrality of Pre-trained Multilingual Representationscited by 82
  11. 2021First Align, then Predict: Understanding the Cross-Lingual Ability of Multilingual BERTcited by 64
  12. 2020It's not Greek to mBERT: Inducing Word-Level Translations from Multilingual BERTcited by 30
3 more
  1. 2021Analysing The Impact Of Linguistic Features On Cross-Lingual Transfercited by 16
  2. 2021On the Language-specificity of Multilingual BERT and the Impact of Fine-tuningcited by 8
  3. 2021Soft Layer Selection with Meta-Learning for Zero-Shot Cross-Lingual Transfercited by 5

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Cited by year (2026 to 7 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2023: 4; 2024: 1; 2025: 2; 2026: 5.

12 papers.

  1. 2023Quantifying the Dialect Gap and its Correlates Across Languagescited by 33
  2. 2026Locate, Steer, and Improve: A Practical Survey of Actionable Mechanistic Interpretability in Large Language Modelscited by 22
  3. 2023Semantic and Expressive Variation in Image Captions Across Languagescited by 8
  4. 2024Cross-Lingual Transfer from Related Languages: Treating Low-Resource Maltese as Multilingual Code-Switchingcited by 5
  5. 2025Modality Matching Matters: Calibrating Language Distances for Cross-Lingual Transfer in URIEL+cited by 3
  6. 2023The Geometry of Multilingual Language Models: An Equality Lenscited by 2
  7. 2025Can LLMs Simulate L2-English Dialogue? An Information-Theoretic Analysis of L1-Dependent Biasescited by 1
  8. 2026From FusHa to Folk: Exploring Cross-Lingual Transfer in Arabic Language Modelscited by 1
  9. 2023mPLM-Sim: Better Cross-Lingual Similarity and Transfer in Multilingual Pretrained Language Modelscited by 0
  10. 2026Language Distances are Practical for Equitable Cross-Lingual Transfercited by 0
  11. 2026Quantitative Measurement of Language Distance among Closely Related Indo-European Languages Using Pretrained Language Models: A Case Study on the North Germanic Branchcited by 0
  12. 2026RunyaNER: Auxiliary Language Selection for Runyankore NERcited by 0

Similar, not cited

Close in wording, no citation either way

  1. 2023Exploring the Relationship between Alignment and Cross-lingual Transfer in Multilingual Transformers
  2. 2023Towards a Common Understanding of Contributing Factors for Cross-Lingual Transfer in Multilingual Language Models: A Review
  3. 2023How do languages influence each other? Studying cross-lingual data sharing during LM fine-tuning
  4. 2025Steering into New Embedding Spaces: Analyzing Cross-Lingual Alignment Induced by Model Interventions in Multilingual Language Models
  5. 2024Understanding Cross-Lingual Alignment -- A Survey
  6. 2025Rethinking Cross-lingual Alignment: Balancing Transfer and Cultural Erasure in Multilingual LLMs
  7. 2025Middle-Layer Representation Alignment for Cross-Lingual Transfer in Fine-Tuned LLMs
  8. 2024Beyond Data Quantity: Key Factors Driving Performance in Multilingual Language Models