Mathematics and languages
One of the great strengths of mathematics is the ability to question the language in which they are written: which word to choose to name an abstract concept? How to express an idea so that the vocabulary used does not slow down its assimilation? Better yet: mathematics can also take language itself as an object of study! From this approach stems the modern theory of information: formal languages, programming…
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From sentence to formula
Before the 20th century, everyday language played a prominent role in mathematical writing. Did that necessarily make it easier to read? How did the balance between descriptive sentences and concise formulas emerge?
The structures of language
Inspired by formal logic, the study of language as a structure developed under the influence first of Saussure and then of Chomsky. Statistics, meanwhile, can be used to analyze texts and are an indispensable tool for machine translation.
Speaking, seeing, comparing: Five historical texts
Mathematical writings contain words, but also signs, symbols and figures. Texts are therefore meant to be looked at as much as read, as works of geometry from antiquity to the present day attest.
Meta-comprehension: an insidious effect in maths | Tangente
How do mathematicians choose names for new concepts? They draw inspiration from the world around them and from the mental images these new objects evoke. In the process, everyday words take on new meanings, sometimes causing confusion...
Formal languages and automata
What do a dictionary, a computer program and the DNA in our cells have in common? Language! A deterministic finite automaton is a useful practical tool for working with this concept. But the limitations of these abstract machines soon become apparent…
The mathematical geometry of Turkish | Tangente
Turkish is an agglutinative language, using suffixes to form its various grammatical features: declension, possession and conjugation. Projections onto a cube determine which suffix to use.
Analyzing an alien language: mathematics | Tangente
Extraterrestrial spacecraft hover above Earth. A linguist (played by Amy Adams) and a scientist (Jeremy Renner) are tasked with asking the aliens about their intentions.
OuLiPo: Mathematics inspires literature | Tangente
On November 24, 1960, Raymond Queneau, a writer with a passion for mathematics, and François Le Lionnais, a mathematician with a love of literature, founded Oulipo (the Workshop of Potential Literature), together with mathematicians such as Paul Braffort and Claude Berge, as well as Jacques Bens, Jean Lescure and Marcel Duchamp. They would later be joined by Georges Perec, Luc Étienne, Jacques Roubaud, Italo Calvino and others.