Dynamic Meaning Membrane Systems: An Application to the Description of Semantic Change

Issue title: SPECIAL ISSUE ON DEVELOPMENTS IN GRAMMAR SYSTEMS

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Bel-Enguix, Gemma | Jiménez-López, M. Dolores

Affiliations: GRLMC–Research Group on Mathematical Linguistics, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Pl. Imperial T`arraco, 1, 43005 Tarragona, Spain. E-mails: gemma.bel@urv.net; mariadolores.jimenez@urv.net

Abstract: An application of membrane systems to natural languages study is presented. Specifically, we show how language change can be explained by using a new variant of membrane systems: Dynamic Meaning Membrane Systems (DMMS). By using DMMS, we model the main concepts of semantics and explain the three basic types of changes in meaning: broadening, narrowing and shift. Finally, we relate the membrane systems' application to language evolution with the suggested application of the so-called cultural grammar systems to the same topic. Collaboration between the two frameworks may provide a useful formalism that, due to its naturalness and simplicity, might offer interesting results in a discipline traditionally far away from any formalization.

Keywords: Membrane systems, grammar systems, language evolution, semantic change

Journal: Fundamenta Informaticae, vol. 76, no. 3, pp. 219-237, 2007