On Algebra and Syntax

https://doi.org/10.31810/rsel.51.2.5

Abstract

Matrix syntax is a formal model of syntactic relations in language. The resulting mathematical structure resembles some aspects of quantum mechanics. Matrix syntax allows us to describe a number of language phenomena that are otherwise very difficult to explain, such as linguistic chains, and is arguably a more economical theory of language than most of the theories proposed in the context of the minimalist program in linguistics. In particular, sentences are naturally modeled as vectors in a Hilbert space with a tensor product structure, built from 2x2 matrices.