Semantics

András Kornai is a mathematical linguist. He is a professor in the Department of Algebra of Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Chief Scientist at SecondMind Labs, and a senior research ad­viser at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences Computer and Automation Research Institute. His research interests include all mathematical aspects of natural language processing, speech recognition, and OCR. His homepage is at https://kornai.com/

• Introduction.- Linear Spaces, Boolean Algebras, and First Order Logic.- Prolepsis.- Graphs and Machines.- Phenogrammar.- Lexemes.- Models.- Embodiment.- The Meaning of Life.

“This ambitious book presents a fresh, innovative approach to a traditional set of problems, the problems involving meaning in language. It is firmly anchored in the extensive literature on these problems. The exposition is mathematically rigorous but clearly written and accessible to the nonmathematical reader. I highly recommend this book for anyone working in or wanting to work in natural language semantics.” [Jerry R. Hobbs, University of Southern California]“This textbook distinguishes itself from other books on semantics by its interdisciplinarity: it presents the perspectives of linguistics, computer science, philosophy and cognitive science. I expect big changes in the field in coming years, so that a broad coverage of foundations is the right approach to equipping students with the knowledge they need to tackle semantics now and in the future." [Hinrich Schütze, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) München]“Very few people are aware of this elegant formalism of Eilenberg machines. People keep teaching presentations of finite state machines as kludgy imperative devices with tapes and reading heads instead of using relational notions. I have respect for Kornai's expertise on many topics, his sharp observations, the originality of the presentation, and its vividness.” [Gérard Huet, INRIA, Institut de France, Académie des Sciences]