SemioLog — The Logic of Signs

2020/2021 Seminar

The aim of the SemioLog seminar is to explore the connections between the semiological aspects of formal languages and the formal dimensions of sign systems.

• Friday, Dec 18, 2020 5-7 pm (UTC+1)

  Juan Luis Gastaldi (ETH Zurich) and Luc Pellissier (Paris-Est Créteil)

  "The Logic of Language: From the Distributional to the Structuralist Hypothesis through Types and Interaction"

  The recent success of new AI techniques in natural language processing rely heavily on the so-called distributional hypothesis. We first show that the latter can be understood as a simplified version of the classic structuralist hypothesis, at the core of a program aiming at reconstructing grammatical structures from first principles and analysis of corpora. Then, we propose to reinterpret the structuralist program with insights from proof theory, especially associating paradigmatic relations and units with formal types defined through an appropriate notion of interaction.

  Zoom Link: https://ethz.zoom.us/j/5662666170?pwd=RE5ZYk8zTjlPZ0V4WW9jd0wwaisxZz09 Meeting ID: 566 266 6170 Password: SemioLog21

• Friday, January 22, 2021: Tai-Danae Bradley: "A Category Theoretical Perspective on Language" https://arxiv.org/abs/2007.03834

• Friday, February 26, 2021: Paul-André Melliès (CNRS, Université de Paris): TBA

Other confirmed speakers for 2021: Jim Ritter, Mikhaïl Gromov, Valentin Thouzau

About SemioLog

As neutral and objective as they may be, formal languages — eg. mathematical, logical or programming languages — are still sign systems. As such, they share with any other sign system their cultural origin and embodiment. On the other hand, as arbitrary and variable signs practices might seem, they cannot avoid establishing, by their very nature, an internal systematicity, which makes them the possible objet of a formal treatment.

SemioLog is a working group of researchers from different disciplinary horizons interested in the connections between the semiological aspects of formal languages and the formal dimensions of sign systems. The group explores the idea that sign practices are endowed with a logic, which far from contradicting their cultural nature, constitutes an essential part of it and of its capacity of developing formal systems.

The SemioLog group holds an monthly interdisciplinary seminar, where researchers working on topics relevant to those problems are invited to share, present and discuss their current work.

Organizers: - Juan Luis Gastaldi (ETH Zurich) - Luc Pellissier (Paris-Est Créteil)

SemioLog is a result of a collaboration between SPHERE (Université de Paris), HPM (ETH Zurich) and LACL (Paris-Est Créteil), and is partially funded by:

ISHH (http://institutdeshumanites.fr) (CfP 2019) EU Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 839730 (SemioMaths project).

Luc Pellissier