# Language Model
**Domain:** Natural Language Processing / Artificial Intelligence
**Doc Type:** Canonical Concept Node
**Maturity:** Developed
**Related:** [[wiki/Natural Language Processing|Natural Language Processing]], [[wiki/Trigger-Based Language Modeling|Trigger-Based Language Modeling]], [[wiki/Distributional Semantics|Distributional Semantics]], [[wiki/Machine Learning|Machine Learning]], [[wiki/Formal Grammar|Formal Grammar]]
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## Definition
**A Language Model assigns probabilities or scores to linguistic sequences, continuations or structures.** Models range from count-based n-grams and trigger models to neural systems trained over large text collections.
A language model captures regularities in usage; it does not automatically possess an explicit theory of meaning, truth or authorship. Fluent continuation can coexist with weak source attribution and uncertain grounding.
## Symbolic Language Engine Context
The early project used corpus-derived trigger relations alongside explicit phonological, grammatical and semantic structures. It was therefore not one unified language model in the contemporary sense. It was a coordinated set of typed models and indexes.
[[wiki/Semantic-First Constrained Generation|Semantic-First Constrained Generation]] reverses the usual procedural-poetry order. A semantic trajectory supplies what the system is trying to express, while grammar, rhyme, meter and corpus evidence constrain its realization.
## Contemporary Bridge
A local neural language model could expand candidate generation in a rebuilt [[wiki/VersePerfect|VersePerfect]], but its outputs should remain labeled as model suggestions rather than corpus attestations or symbolic deductions.
## Key Insight
**A language model predicts linguistic possibility. Additional structures are required to identify relation type, evidence source and intended meaning.**
## See Also
[[wiki/Natural Language Processing|Natural Language Processing]], [[wiki/Trigger-Based Language Modeling|Trigger-Based Language Modeling]], [[wiki/Distributional Semantics|Distributional Semantics]], [[wiki/Word Embeddings|Word Embeddings]], [[wiki/Neuro-Symbolic AI|Neuro-Symbolic AI]], [[wiki/Provenance-Sensitive Multiplicity|Provenance-Sensitive Multiplicity]]
## Sources / Provenance
- Primary project account: [[projects/Ten Years Building a Symbolic Language Engine|Ten Years Building a Symbolic Language Engine]].
- Daniel Jurafsky and James H. Martin, *Speech and Language Processing*.
- Historical n-gram, trigger and neural language-modeling literature.