# Vectoring Languages

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.11766 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.11766/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 9 of its 28 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 16 Jul 2024.

## Builds on (most cited first, 9 of 9)

- [Attention Is All You Need](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.03762/) (2017)
- [Language Models are Few-Shot Learners](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.14165/) (2020)
- [Efficient Estimation of Word Representations in Vector Space](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1301.3781/) (2013)
- [RealToxicityPrompts: Evaluating Neural Toxic Degeneration in Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2009.11462/) (2020)
- [Semantics derived automatically from language corpora contain human-like biases](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1608.07187/) (2016)
- [Selection-Inference: Exploiting Large Language Models for Interpretable Logical Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.09712/) (2022)
- [From Word Models to World Models: Translating from Natural Language to the Probabilistic Language of Thought](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.12672/) (2023)
- [Word meaning in minds and machines](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2008.01766/) (2020)
- [Modeling Human Ad Hoc Coordination](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1602.03924/) (2016)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Recent breakthroughs in large language models (LLM) have stirred up global attention, and the research has been accelerating non-stop since then. Philosophers and psychologists have also been researching the structure of language for decades, but they are having a hard time finding a theory that directly benefits from the breakthroughs of LLMs. In this article, we propose a novel structure of language that reflects well on the mechanisms behind language models and go on to show that this structure is also better at capturing the diverse nature of language compared to previous methods. An analogy of linear algebra is adapted to strengthen the basis of this perspective. We further argue about the difference between this perspective and the design philosophy for current language models. Lastly, we discuss how this perspective can lead us to research directions that may accelerate the improvements of science fastest.