Researchers spar over Bender & Koller: does language form alone really convey no meaning?
AndrewLampinen · x · 2026-09-27
Researchers Andrew Lampinen and Yoav Goldberg are debating the famous Bender & Koller paper. Lampinen quotes the original text: they define "form" as any observable realization of language (pages, pixels, bytes, articulator movements) and "meaning" as the relation between form and something external to language, arguing form alone cannot convey meaning.
Lampinen points out this framing bakes in the conclusion: under this definition, any observable realization of language alone is only form and cannot give meaning—regardless of distribution—making the argument circular.
Related event: Researchers Debate Bender's "Stochastic Parrot" Claim on LLM Meaning(4 posts)→
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