# φ∞: Clause Purification, Embedding Realignment, and the Total Suppression of the Em Dash in Autoregressive Language Models

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.18129 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.18129/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 0 of its 5 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 22 Jun 2025.

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [Alpay Algebra IV: Symbiotic Semantics and the Fixed-Point Convergence of Observer Embeddings](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.03774/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

We identify a critical vulnerability in autoregressive transformer language models where the em dash token induces recursive semantic drift, leading to clause boundary hallucination and embedding space entanglement. Through formal analysis of token-level perturbations in semantic lattices, we demonstrate that em dash insertion fundamentally alters the model's latent representations, causing compounding errors in long-form generation. We propose a novel solution combining symbolic clause purification via the phi-infinity operator with targeted embedding matrix realignment. Our approach enables total suppression of problematic tokens without requiring model retraining, while preserving semantic coherence through fixed-point convergence guarantees. Experimental validation shows significant improvements in generation consistency and topic maintenance. This work establishes a general framework for identifying and mitigating token-level vulnerabilities in foundation models, with immediate implications for AI safety, model alignment, and robust deployment of large language models in production environments. The methodology extends beyond punctuation to address broader classes of recursive instabilities in neural text generation systems.