IV. Ecosmomics: Independent Complex Network Systems, Computational Programs, Genetic Ecode Scripts

3. Iteracy: A Rosetta Ecosmos Textuality

Coecke, Bob. From Quantum Foundations via Natural Language Meaning to a Theory of Everything. arXiv:1602.07618. The Oxford University professor of Quantum Foundations, Logics and Structures also leads the Quantum Group of the Oxford Computing Laboratory, so is well versed in both theoretical physics and algorithmic programs. With many colleagues, he has been trying for some years to get a bearing on an apparent correspondence between quantum phenomena and linguistic expression. Into these 2010s nature’s deepest, basic realm can now be treated as a complex, dynamic system, with new commonalities to everywhere else. See for example his papers The Logic of Quantum Mechanics (1204.3458) and An Alternative Gospel of Structure (1307.4038). Here it is first put that an intrinsic relatedness is needed to complement a particle only fixation. A tour of quantum and literary realms then leads to a “new compositional distributional model” whence “meaning is everything.” By these insights, a novel “theory of everything” is broached which can convey this holistic, textual, connective, semantic essence, rather than one equation as before.

In this paper we argue for a paradigmatic shift from `reductionism' to `togetherness'. In particular, we show how interaction between systems in quantum theory naturally carries over to modelling how word meanings interact in natural language. Since meaning in natural language, depending on the subject domain, encompasses discussions within any scientific discipline, we obtain a template for theories such as social interaction, animal behaviour, and many others. (Abstract)

The title of this section is a metaphor aimed at confronting the complete disregard that the concept of togetherness has suffered in the sciences, and especially, in physics, where all of the effort has been on describing the individual, typically by breaking its description down to that of even smaller individuals. While, without any doubt, this has been a useful endeavour, it unfortunately has evolved in a rigid doctrine, leaving no space for anything else. The most extreme manifestation of this dogma is the use of the term ‘theory of everything’ in particle physics. We will provide an alternative conceptual template for a theory of everything, supported not only by scientific examples, but also by everyday ones. (2)

Of course, if we now consider the example of quantum theory from two sections ago, the analogues to grammatical types are system types i.e. a specification of the kinds (incl. quantity) of systems that are involved. So it makes sense to refine the grammatical types according to the subject domain. Just like nouns in physics would involve specification of the kinds of systems involved, in biology, for example, this could involve specification of species, population size, environment, availability of food etc. Correspondingly, the top part would not just be restricted to grammatical interaction, but also domain specific interaction, just like in the case of quantum theory. (15)

Coecke, Bob. The Logic of Quantum Mechanics. Jennifer Chubb, et al, eds. Logic and Algebraic Structures in Quantum Computing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016. We cite this chapter by the Oxford computer theorist because it advances how this basic physical realm can be seen to possess a literate, compositional quality.

We put forward a new take on the logic of quantum mechanics, following Schrödinger's point of view that it is composition which makes quantum theory what it is, rather than its particular propositional structure due to the existence of superpositions. This gives rise to an intrinsically quantitative kind of logic, which truly deserves the name ‘logic’ in that it also models meaning in natural language, the latter being the origin of logic, that it supports automation, the most prominent practical use of logic, and that it supports probabilistic inference. (Abstract)

Coecke, Bob. The Mathematics of Text Structure. arXiv:1904.03478. The Oxford University computer scientist (search) leads a collaborative group there and beyond which studies in part how written literature is suffused by independent mathematical forms and narratives. This deep rooting can be extended even into physical quantum realms, as Diederik Aerts’ Brussels project (search), and Natural Language Processing are also finding. A prime basis for Coecke has been the lifetime work of the late McGill University Joachim (Jim) Lambek (1922-2014) who came to conceive “a compositional algebraic approach to grammar.” This is a subtitle for his 100+ page paper, From Word to Sentence, available at math.mcgill.ca/barr/lambek/pdffiles/2008lambek.pdf. BC, JL, and others collaborated around this sense of a compositional cosmos that can in some way be considered and treated as having a meaningful, textual content.

In previous work we gave a mathematical foundation, referred to as DisCoCat, for how words interact in a sentence in order to produce the meaning of that sentence. To do so, we exploited the perfect structural match of grammar and categories of meaning spaces. Here, we give a mathematical foundation, referred to as DisCoCirc, for how sentences interact in texts in order to produce the meaning of that text. We revisit DisCoCat: while in the latter all meanings are states, in DisCoCirc word meanings are types of which the state can evolve, and sentences are gates within a circuit which update the meaning of words. While the developments in this paper are independent of a physical embodiment (cf. classical vs. quantum computing), both the compositional formalism and suggested meaning model are highly quantum-inspired, and implementation on a quantum computer would come with a range of benefits. (Abstract excerpt)

Cong, Jin and Haitao Liu. Approaching Human Language with Complex Networks. Physics of Life Reviews. Online April, 2014. In this day of instant worldwide access to technical literature, collaboration, and publication, Zhejiang University, China, systems linguists post a comprehensive study to show how such ubiquitous inter-connective phenomena can similarly apply to and distinguish every aspect of communication. With some 200 current references, it conveys how our own vernacular can be found to have roots in and an affinity the deep dynamics of physical nature.

In complement to the reductionist approach as commonly used in modern science, this new science of networks makes it possible to probe into the complexity of real-world systems in their entirety and thus constitutes one, if not the only, solution to the challenge of “reassembling” complex systems and capturing their holistic properties. Indebted substantially to graph theory and statistical physics, the models and quantitative tools employed of real-world networks of various natures and thus facilitate communication between different disciplines. (2)

Coronel-Molina, Serafin and Miguel Rodriguez-Mondonedo. Introduction: Language Contact in the Andes and Universal Grammar. Lingua. 122/5, 2012. Indiana University cultural linguists open a special issue with this title, as if a worldwide personsphere proceeds to reconstruct the myriad yet familial dialects from which it arose. The polyglot Tower of Babel can be coherent again as we find by careful analysis that the many tongues contain a common vernacular. In Rosetta translation, we all speak the same human-earth prose and poetry, which ever invites us altogether to learn to read and avail.

In this paper we offer a panoramic overview of the development of Andean Spanish and Andean Linguistics, from a theoretical point of view of language contact and universal grammar. We discuss how the notion of Andean Spanish came into existence, the issues under debate, and the consequences of different theoretical positions. We also introduce the contents of the papers included in this special issue, and highlight their key points, framing them in the context of the research on universal grammar. The following five areas are covered: (1) the convergence of Quechua and Aymara, (2) the impact of bilingualism on intonation, (3) the sharing of suffixes in contact situations, (4) the modification of the present perfect tense in Spanish in contact with Quechua, and (5) the properties of the Quechua case system from the point of view of contact varieties. Finally, we provide some remarks on bilingual education, and some suggestions for further directions for future research. (Abstract)

Corral, Alvaro, et al. Universal Complex Structures in Written Language. arXiv:0901.2924. Circa 2009, Barcelona informatic linguists Corral, Ramon Ferrer-i-Cancho and Albert Diaz-Guilera provide an early, prescient recognition that human literature does indeed exemplify these same system dynamics as being found everywhere else in nature and society.

Quantitative linguistics has provided us with a number of empirical laws that characterise the evolution of languages and competition amongst them. In terms of language usage, one of the most influential results is Zipf's law of word frequencies. Zipf's law appears to be universal, and may not even be unique to human language. However, there is ongoing controversy over whether Zipf's law is a good indicator of complexity. Here we present an alternative approach that puts Zipf's law in the context of critical phenomena (the cornerstone of complexity in physics) and establishes the presence of a large scale "attraction" between successive repetitions of words. Moreover, this phenomenon is scale-invariant and universal -- the pattern is independent of word frequency and is observed in texts by different authors and written in different languages. There is evidence, however, that the shape of the scaling relation changes for words that play a key role in the text, implying the existence of different "universality classes" in the repetition of words. These behaviours exhibit striking parallels with complex catastrophic phenomena. (Abstract)

Cowley, Stephen. Distributed Language and Dynamics. Pragmatics & Cognition. 17/3, 2009. As an introduction to a special issue, a linguist (see bio below) calls for an overdue shift of social discourse from discrete symbols, words alone, to equally admit integral relationships within broadly-based cultural settings. A mantra “dynamics first, symbolic second” is voiced to distinguish our societal lives as semiotic and literal in essence. Notable papers are “The Experiential Basis of Speech and Writing as Different Cognitive Domains” by Alexander Kravchenko, and “Symbols as Constraints: The Structuring Role of Dynamics and Self-organization in Natural Language” by Joanna Raczaszek-Leonardi. Johns Benjamins will publish this issue as Distributed Language in October 2011, from which the main quote below. What accrues is another realization that greater nature is in fact deeply informational and textual in kind.

The volume presents language as fully integrated with human existence. On this view, language is not essentially ‘symbolic’, not represented inside minds or brains, and most certainly not determined by micro-social rules and norms. Rather, language is part of our ecology. It emerges when bodies co-ordinate vocal and visible gesture to integrate events with different histories. Enacting feeling, expression and wordings, language permeates the collective, individual and affective life of living beings. Distributed language pursues this perspective both theoretically and in relation to empirical work. Empirically, it reports studies on the anticipatory dynamics of reading, its socio-cognitive consequences, Shakespearean theatre, what images evoke (in brain and word), and solving insight problems. Theoretically, the volume challenges linguistic autonomy from overlapping theoretical positions. First, it is argued that language exploits a species specific form of semiotic cognition. Second, it is suggested that the central function of language lies in realizing values that derive from our ecosystemic existence. Third, this is ascribed to how cultural and biological symbols co-regulate the dynamics that shape human activity. Fourth, it is argued that language, far from being organism-centred, gives us an extended ecology in which our co-ordination is saturated by values and norms that are derived from our sociocultural environment.

Stephen Cowley is a Senior Lecturer in Developmental Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire, UK, and Research Fellow at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. He founded and coordinates the Distributed Language Group, a community that aims to transform the language sciences by showing how directed, dialogical activity gives a collective dimension to human intelligence.

De les Coves, Gemma, et al. Universality and Complexity in Natural Languages: Mechanistic and Emergent.. C:/Users/Author/Downloads/preprints202402.1330.v1.pdf.. As this year becomes distinguished by integral syntheses across every realm and occasion, polyscholars GC, University of Innsbruck, Bernat Corominas-Murtra, Graz University, Germany and Ricard Sole, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona prepost a subject instance whence spoken and textual communications, broadly conceived, can likewise be seen to inhere an exemplary universality of complex network systems. As the quotes say, these recursive, fractal-like attributes also refer to morphogenetic programs and traced onto physical phase transitions. As a summary it is wondered if Gottfried Leibniz’ proposal of an alphabetic Characteristica Universalis might at last be fulfilled. (See also The grammar of the Ising model by Tobias Reinhart
and Gemma De les Coves in Proceedings of the Royal Society A for May 2025.)
Published:07 May 2025

Human language exemplifies a complex system formed by multiple scales of description. Its origins and content have been well studied from grammatical standards to statistical analyses of word usage, which are seen imply universal patterns shared by all languages. Yet, a cohesive perspective remains elusive. In this paper we provide a basic structure of universality, and define recursion as a special case. We note generative grammars of formal languages (Chomsky) on the path toward universality and compare mathematical properties. We arrive at Zipf's law as a complexity attractor with a relation to common writing systems and Turing computations. Overall, we find two forms of universality, mechanistic and emergent, and cite some connections between them.

If anything characterizes linguistic phenomena is its ubiquity and diversity, spanning research fields and scales. Linguistics, psychology, population genetics [9], artificial intelligence, network science, statistical physics, evolutionary biology and cognitive science provide frameworks encompassing some aspect of language complexity. Yet, such explanations are not independent, but their relations give rise to a complex net of relations, as illustrated in Figure 1 (see next quote) exhibiting a hierarchy of such representations ranging from minimal components to the socio-cultural domain. (1)

Figure 1. Human language is a multiscale phenomenon with hierarchical levels from phonemes at the microscale, grammar and sentences at the mesoscale, and sociocultural dynamics at the macroscale. These phases include symbols to build the basic units of language (signs or words), the rules to organise words in sentences (grammar), neural substrate of these processes, and the role played by cultural change networks. One can approach the presence of universals in natural languages from the perspective of writing systems, whose history experienced marked transitions, or machines and recursion. (3)

The enscripted writing of languages was a major historic innovation which arose independently in various cultures and became a cornerstone of civilizations. The emergence of writing required a fortunate combination of already-present brain circuits; similarly, the transition to a reading brain involved a blend of contingency and inevitability. In this process, a revolutionary turn occurred: The transition to alphabets, by which as a small inventory of basic symbols can be combined to form syllables and words. As we shall discuss very soon, this transition can be seen as a jump to universality. (12)

De Looze, Laurence. The Letter and the Cosmos: How the Alphabet has Shaped the Western View of the World. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2016. From our worldwide vantage, a University of Western Ontario professor of comparative literature provides a grand retrospect of a definitive human penchant to create symbolic forms and images by which to record, describe, communicate, and to represent in an iconic way a deeply literal reality. The volume dutifully travels from Greece to Rome, the Christian Middle Ages, Humanism, a Universal Language, and onto a reasonable modernity and late post-modernity. As a synopsis, throughout history the incentive and hope was a natural, ordained textuality which might be translated and discerned by way of such a cipher articulation.

DeGiuli, Eric. Random Language Model: A Path to Principled Complexity. arXiv:1809.01201. A University of Sorbonne Paris physicist advances a linguistic understanding of the textual, computational, alphabetic (broadly conceived) essence of natural reality. See also his companion post Emergence of Order in Random Languages at 1902.07516.

Many complex generative systems use languages to create structured objects. We consider a model of random languages, defined by weighted context-free grammars. As the distribution of grammar weights broadens, a transition is found from a random phase, in which sentences are indistinguishable from noise, to an organized phase in which nontrivial information is carried. This marks the emergence of deep structure in the language, and can be understood by a competition between energy and entropy. (1809.01201 Abstract)

It is a remarkable fact that structures of the most astounding complexity can be encoded into sequences of digits from a finite alphabet. Indeed, the complexity of life is written in the genetic code, with alphabet {A,T,C,G}, proteins are coded from strings of 20 amino acids, and human-written text is composed in small, fixed alphabets. This ‘infinite use of finite means’ was formalized by Post and Chomsky with the notion of generative grammar, and has been elaborated upon since by linguists and computer scientists. (1)

We consider languages generated by weighted context-free grammars. It is shown that the behaviour of large texts is controlled by saddle-point equations for an appropriate generating function. We then consider ensembles of grammars, in particular my Random Language Model (above). This model is solved in the replica-symmetric ansatz, which is valid in the high-temperature, disordered phase. It is shown that in the phase in which languages carry information, the replica symmetry must be broken. (1902.07516 Abstract)

Di Marco, Niccolo, et al. Decoding Musical Evolution Through Network Science.. arXiv:2501.07557.. While most entries herein attest to the deep presence of complex, self-similar topologies in written prose, this entry by Sapienza University of Rome and University of Padova researchers proceeds to discern a similar intrinsic formative basis for multiplex melodious versions.

In this study, we use the latest Network Science to analyze musical complexity. Drawing on six macro-genres spanning four centuries, we represent each composition as a weighted directed network to study its structural properties. Our results show that Classical and Jazz compositions have higher complexity and melodic diversity than recently developed genres. This study highlights how digital tools and streaming platforms can shape musical evolution.

Dinesh, T. and S. Uskudarli. Renarration for All. arXiv:1810.12379. A Janastu social activist in Karnataka, India (second quote) and a Bogazici University, Istanbul computer scientist identify and scope out some ways that editorial functions for societal access and clarity ought to be built into the Internet for better communication and comprehension

The accessibility of content for all has been a key goal of the Web since its conception. However, true access to relevant content in the global context has been elusive for reasons beyond physical accessibility. Among them are the spoken languages, literacy levels, expertise, and culture. A renarration relates some Web content with an alternative version by means of transformations like simplification, elaboration, translation, or production of audio and video material. This work presents a model and a basic architecture for supporting renarrations along with various scenarios. (Abstract excerpt)

Janastu, a non-profit organization, has been providing Free Open source Software Solutions and support (FOSS) to small non-profits (NPOs/NGOs) since 2002. This includes one-on-one consulting regarding their information management needs, building their online and offline knowledge bases, providing support to their projects by designing web-sites, configuring news-filters, helping them migrate to open source solutions, help deal with localization and Indian language issues, geographic information collection and necessary R&D.

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