Related papers: On the equivalence of state transformer semantics …
This paper describes how to verify a parser for regular expressions in a functional programming language using predicate transformer semantics for a variety of effects. Where our previous work in this area focused on the semantics for a…
We investigate program equivalence for linear higher-order(sequential) languages endowed with primitives for computational effects. More specifically, we study operationally-based notions of program equivalence for a linear…
We develop a denotational model for probabilistic and concurrent imperative programs, a class of programs with standard control flow via conditionals and while-loops, as well as probabilistic actions and parallel composition. Whereas…
This paper studies trace-based equivalences for systems combining nondeterministic and probabilistic choices. We show how trace semantics for such processes can be recovered by instantiating a coalgebraic construction known as the…
Minimizing finite automata, proving trace equivalence of labelled transition systems or representing sofic subshifts involve very similar arguments, which suggests the possibility of a unified formalism. We propose finite states…
Syntactic structures used to play a vital role in natural language processing (NLP), but since the deep learning revolution, NLP has been gradually dominated by neural models that do not consider syntactic structures in their design. One…
This paper explores the connection between semantic equivalences and preorders for concrete sequential processes, represented by means of labelled transition systems, and formats of transition system specifications using Plotkin's…
In this paper we revisit the well-known technique of predicate abstraction to characterise performance attributes of system models incorporating probability. We recast the theory using expectation transformers, and identify transformer…
We consider mixed powerdomains combining ordinary nondeterminism and probabilistic nondeterminism. We characterise them as free algebras for suitable (in)equation-al theories; we establish functional representation theorems; and we show…
In the refinement calculus, monotonic predicate transformers are used to model specifications for (imperative) programs. Together with a natural notion of simulation, they form a category enjoying many algebraic properties. We build on this…
Semantic textual similarity is the task of estimating the similarity between the meaning of two texts. In this paper, we fine-tune transformer architectures for semantic textual similarity on the Semantic Textual Similarity Benchmark by…
Synonymy and translational equivalence are the relations of sameness of meaning within and across languages. As the principal relations in wordnets and multi-wordnets, they are vital to computational lexical semantics, yet the field suffers…
We describe and compare design choices for meta-predicate semantics, as found in representative Prolog module systems and in Logtalk. We look at the consequences of these design choices from a pragmatic perspective, discussing explicit…
Currently, there is a gap between the tools used by probability theorists and those used in formal reasoning about probabilistic programs. On the one hand, a probability theorist decomposes probabilistic state along the simple and natural…
In the semantics of programming languages one can view programs as state transformers, or as predicate transformers. Recently the author has introduced state-and-effect triangles which capture this situation categorically, involving an…
We study finite-state transducers and their power for transforming infinite words. Infinite sequences of symbols are of paramount importance in a wide range of fields, from formal languages to pure mathematics and physics. While finite…
We give a domain-theoretic semantics to a statistical programming language, using the plain old category of dcpos, in contrast to some more sophisticated recent proposals. Remarkably, our monad of minimal valuations is commutative, which…
A coalgebraic definition of finite and infinite trace semantics for probabilistic transition systems has recently been given using a certain Kleisli category. In this paper this semantics is developed using a coalgebraic method which is an…
A nondeterministic automaton is semantically deterministic (SD) if different nondeterministic choices in the automaton lead to equivalent states. Semantic determinism is interesting as it is a natural relaxation of determinism, and as some…
Predictive equivalence in discrete stochastic processes have been applied with great success to identify randomness and structure in statistical physics and chaotic dynamical systems and to inferring hidden Markov models. We examine the…