Connecting the dots: Mass, energy, word meaning, and particle-wave duality

Abstract

With insight from linguistics that degrees of text cohesion are similar to forces in physics, and the frequent use of the energy concept in text categorization by machine learning, we consider the applicability of particle-wave duality to semantic content inherent in index terms. Wave-like interpretations go back to the regional nature of such content, utilizing functions for its representation, whereas content as a particle can be conveniently modelled by position vectors. Interestingly, wave packets behave like particles, lending credibility to the duality hypothesis. We show in a classical mechanics framework how metaphorical term mass can be computed. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.