OT Constraints for Numerical Expressions #
@cite{cummins-2015} @cite{cummins-franke-2021}
Optimality-Theoretic constraint system for numeral production. Speakers choose among candidate numeral expressions by optimizing across four ranked constraints:
- INFO (informativeness): prefer smaller admitted set
- Granularity: match contextual precision level
- QSIMP (quantifier simplicity): prefer bare numerals
- NSAL (numeral salience): prefer round/salient numerals
The key insight connecting to the k-ness model (Phenomena.Gradability.Imprecision.Numerals): NSAL violations = maxRoundnessScore - roundnessScore(n). Rounder numbers incur fewer NSAL violations, making them preferred candidates.
Connection to RSA #
The OT constraints map onto RSA parameters:
- INFO ↔ literal semantics φ (truth-conditional informativeness)
- Granularity ↔ QUD (contextual precision level)
- QSIMP ↔ utterance cost (modifier complexity)
- NSAL ↔ utterance cost (roundness-based salience)
Connection to @cite{cummins-franke-2021} #
enrichmentWidth predicts pragmatic enrichment range width from roundnessScore.
100 (score 6) gets a wider enriched range than 110 (score 2), explaining why
"more than 100" has weaker argumentative strength per C&F's pragmatic reversal.
Form of the numeral expression.
Bare numerals are simplest; modified forms add complexity.
- bare : QuantifierForm
- modified : QuantifierForm
- interval : QuantifierForm
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A candidate numeral expression for OT evaluation.
- numeral : ℕ
The numeral used
- actualValue : ℕ
Actual value being communicated
- form : QuantifierForm
Quantifier form
- contextGranularity : ℕ
Contextual granularity level (trailing zeros in context numeral)
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Infer granularity from a numeral's trailing zeros.
100 → 2 (precision to hundreds) 110 → 1 (precision to tens) 111 → 0 (precision to units)
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INFO (informativeness): prefer more informative expressions.
Violations = |admitted set| - 1. An expression that admits more values is less informative and incurs more violations.
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- Implicature.Constraints.NumericalExpressions.infoViolations admittedCount = admittedCount - 1
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Granularity: match the contextual precision level.
Violations = absolute difference between context granularity and utterance granularity. A granularity mismatch (e.g., saying "100" when context demands unit precision) is penalized.
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QSIMP (quantifier simplicity): prefer bare numerals.
bare = 0, modified = 1, interval = 2
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- Implicature.Constraints.NumericalExpressions.qsimpViolations Implicature.Constraints.NumericalExpressions.QuantifierForm.bare = 0
- Implicature.Constraints.NumericalExpressions.qsimpViolations Implicature.Constraints.NumericalExpressions.QuantifierForm.modified = 1
- Implicature.Constraints.NumericalExpressions.qsimpViolations Implicature.Constraints.NumericalExpressions.QuantifierForm.interval = 2
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NSAL (numeral salience): prefer round/salient numerals.
Violations = maxRoundnessScore - roundnessScore(n). Maximally round numbers (score 6) incur 0 violations. Non-round numbers (score 0) incur 6 violations.
This is the key connection to the k-ness model: NSAL is the complement of the graded roundness score.
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NSAL violations are the complement of roundness score.
An OT constraint with name, violation function, and rank.
Higher rank = more dominant in the hierarchy.
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The four constraints with default ranking.
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- Implicature.Constraints.NumericalExpressions.INFO = { name := "INFO", rank := 4 }
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- Implicature.Constraints.NumericalExpressions.GRANULARITY = { name := "Granularity", rank := 3 }
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- Implicature.Constraints.NumericalExpressions.QSIMP = { name := "QSIMP", rank := 2 }
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- Implicature.Constraints.NumericalExpressions.NSAL = { name := "NSAL", rank := 1 }
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Default ranking: INFO >> Granularity >> QSIMP >> NSAL.
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- Implicature.Constraints.NumericalExpressions.instBEqViolationProfile.beq x✝¹ x✝ = false
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Compute the violation profile for a candidate.
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Lexicographic comparison of paired violation counts. Returns true if the first profile wins at the first point of difference. Factored out for provability (e.g., transitivity of harmonic bounding).
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OT strict domination: v1 harmonically bounds v2 if at the first constraint where they differ (in ranking order), v1 has fewer violations.
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Select the optimal candidate from a list (first candidate that is not harmonically bounded by any other).
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A rounder numeral always has fewer NSAL violations.
Enrichment width: predicted pragmatic enrichment range from roundnessScore.
Connects to CumminsFranke2021.lean's pragmatic enrichment model:
- 100 (score 6) → wider enrichment (±10, 20 total)
- 110 (score 2) → narrower enrichment (±5, 10 total)
- 7 (score 0) → minimal enrichment (±2, 4 total)
Semantically, "more than 110" is stronger than "more than 100" (higher Bayes factor). But pragmatic enrichment reverses this: "more than 100" enriched to (100,150] retains assertability in goal-worlds, while "more than 110" enriched to (110,120] loses nearly all goal-world assertability. So pragmatically, "more than 100" becomes stronger.
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Rounder M → wider enrichment.
NSAL violations as a normalized RSA cost ∈ [0, 1].
This bridges the OT constraint to the RSA cost parameter: round numerals are "cheap" (cost ≈ 0), non-round are "expensive" (cost ≈ 1).
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Round numerals are cheaper in RSA terms.
The four OT constraints as a criterion type.
- info : NumeralConstraint
- granularity : NumeralConstraint
- qsimp : NumeralConstraint
- nsal : NumeralConstraint
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Coarse-grain a violation profile: a constraint is "satisfied" iff it has 0 violations. This discards degree-of-violation information but connects to SatisfactionOrdering's Bool-valued framework.
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- Implicature.Constraints.NumericalExpressions.constraintSatisfied v Implicature.Constraints.NumericalExpressions.NumeralConstraint.info = (v.info == 0)
- Implicature.Constraints.NumericalExpressions.constraintSatisfied v Implicature.Constraints.NumericalExpressions.NumeralConstraint.granularity = (v.granularity == 0)
- Implicature.Constraints.NumericalExpressions.constraintSatisfied v Implicature.Constraints.NumericalExpressions.NumeralConstraint.qsimp = (v.qsimp == 0)
- Implicature.Constraints.NumericalExpressions.constraintSatisfied v Implicature.Constraints.NumericalExpressions.NumeralConstraint.nsal = (v.nsal == 0)
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A SatisfactionOrdering over violation profiles using the four @cite{cummins-2015} constraints.
This coarse-grains the OT system: a candidate "satisfies" a constraint iff it incurs 0 violations on that constraint. The resulting ordering is weaker than OT's lexicographic ranking — OT additionally discriminates by violation degree — but captures the structural backbone: a candidate that satisfies a strict superset of constraints is always OT-preferred.
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A candidate with zero violations everywhere is at-least-as-good as any other under the satisfaction ordering.
Bridge: zero violations harmonically bounds any profile with at least one violation. This is the strongest case of the general principle that satisfaction-ordering dominance implies OT dominance when the superset constraint is the highest-ranked difference.
The converse fails: harmonicallyBounds can distinguish candidates that satisfy the same set of constraints but differ in violation degree (e.g., INFO violations 1 vs 3).