arXiv Computation and Language By Andr\'es Daniel Godoy Ortiz

Meaning Contracts: Local Semantic Geometry in Large Language Models

Read the original on arXiv Computation and Language →

The paper investigates how semantic meaning is arranged locally within large language models. By using two controlled probes—one cross‑lingual and one refinement probe—on four decoder‑only LLMs, it finds that after removing dominant variance directions, sentence pairs rank by semantic relatedness, semantic factors cluster around an invariant core with structured variation, refinement tightens neighborhoods, and sentence‑level versus token‑local readouts reveal complementary geometric patterns. These results suggest that LLM semantics form local anisotropic neighborhoods that contract when meaning is refined.

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