X-Git-Url: http://lambda.jimpryor.net/git/gitweb.cgi?p=lambda.git;a=blobdiff_plain;f=week7.mdwn;h=857a636bad6dad17cdda8689905be7dd934174c9;hp=84a2af55dec222f8d8e21eb9bb51c4ea38667508;hb=5bda5b5a2df9af3e0b46179854b370819f14ced8;hpb=a020d7de4c5b17ce19c0efbaf6760799a899cc4d diff --git a/week7.mdwn b/week7.mdwn index 84a2af55..857a636b 100644 --- a/week7.mdwn +++ b/week7.mdwn @@ -1,452 +1,591 @@ [[!toc]] -Monads ------- - -Start by (re)reading the discussion of monads in the lecture notes for -week 6 [Towards Monads](http://lambda.jimpryor.net//week6/#index4h2). -In those notes, we saw a way to separate thinking about error -conditions (such as trying to divide by zero) from thinking about -normal arithmetic computations. We did this by making use of the -option monad: in each place where we had something of type `int`, we -put instead something of type `int option`, which is a sum type -consisting either of just an integer, or else some special value which -we could interpret as signaling that something had gone wrong. -The goal was to make normal computing as convenient as possible: when -we're adding or multiplying, we don't have to worry about generating -any new errors, so we do want to think about the difference between -`int`s and `int option`s. We tried to accomplish this by defining a -`bind` operator, which enabled us to peel away the `option` husk to get -at the delicious integer inside. There was also a homework problem -which made this even more convenient by mapping any binary operation -on plain integers into a lifted operation that understands how to deal -with `int option`s in a sensible way. - -[Linguitics note: Dividing by zero is supposed to feel like a kind of -presupposition failure. If we wanted to adapt this approach to -building a simple account of presupposition projection, we would have -to do several things. First, we would have to make use of the -polymorphism of the `option` type. In the arithmetic example, we only -made use of `int option`s, but when we're composing natural language -expression meanings, we'll need to use types like `N int`, `Det Int`, -`VP int`, and so on. But that works automatically, because we can use -any type for the `'a` in `'a option`. Ultimately, we'd want to have a -theory of accommodation, and a theory of the situations in which -material within the sentence can satisfy presuppositions for other -material that otherwise would trigger a presupposition violation; but, -not surprisingly, these refinements will require some more -sophisticated techniques than the super-simple option monad.] - -So what exactly is a monad? As usual, we're not going to be pedantic -about it, but for our purposes, we can consider a monad to be a system -that provides at least the following three elements: +Towards Monads: Safe division +----------------------------- -* A way to build a complex type from some basic type. In the division - example, the polymorphism of the `'a option` type provides a way of - building an option out of any other type of object. People often - use a container metaphor: if `x` has type `int option`, then `x` is - a box that (may) contain an integer. +[This section used to be near the end of the lecture notes for week 6] - `type 'a option = None | Some of 'a;;` +We begin by reasoning about what should happen when someone tries to +divide by zero. This will lead us to a general programming technique +called a *monad*, which we'll see in many guises in the weeks to come. -* A way to turn an ordinary value into a monadic value. In Ocaml, we - did this for any integer `n` by mapping it to - the option `Some n`. To be official, we can define a function - called unit: +Integer division presupposes that its second argument +(the divisor) is not zero, upon pain of presupposition failure. +Here's what my OCaml interpreter says: - `let unit x = Some x;;` + # 12/0;; + Exception: Division_by_zero. - `val unit : 'a -> 'a option = ` +So we want to explicitly allow for the possibility that +division will return something other than a number. +We'll use OCaml's `option` type, which works like this: - So `unit` is a way to put something inside of a box. + # type 'a option = None | Some of 'a;; + # None;; + - : 'a option = None + # Some 3;; + - : int option = Some 3 -* A bind operation (note the type): +So if a division is normal, we return some number, but if the divisor is +zero, we return `None`. As a mnemonic aid, we'll append a `'` to the end of our new divide function. - `let bind m f = match m with None -> None | Some n -> f n;;` - - `val bind : 'a option -> ('a -> 'b option) -> 'b option = ` - - `bind` takes two arguments (a monadic object and a function from - ordinary objects to monadic objects), and returns a monadic - object. +
+let div' (x:int) (y:int) =
+  match y with
+	  0 -> None
+    | _ -> Some (x / y);;
+
+(*
+val div' : int -> int -> int option = fun
+# div' 12 2;;
+- : int option = Some 6
+# div' 12 0;;
+- : int option = None
+# div' (div' 12 2) 3;;
+Characters 4-14:
+  div' (div' 12 2) 3;;
+        ^^^^^^^^^^
+Error: This expression has type int option
+       but an expression was expected of type int
+*)
+
- Intuitively, the interpretation of what `bind` does is like this: - the first argument computes a monadic object m, which will - evaluate to a box containing some ordinary value, call it `x`. - Then the second argument uses `x` to compute a new monadic - value. Conceptually, then, we have +This starts off well: dividing 12 by 2, no problem; dividing 12 by 0, +just the behavior we were hoping for. But we want to be able to use +the output of the safe-division function as input for further division +operations. So we have to jack up the types of the inputs: - `let bind m f = (let x = unwrap m in f x);;` +
+let div' (u:int option) (v:int option) =
+  match v with
+	  None -> None
+    | Some 0 -> None
+	| Some y -> (match u with
+					  None -> None
+                    | Some x -> Some (x / y));;
+
+(*
+val div' : int option -> int option -> int option = 
+# div' (Some 12) (Some 2);;
+- : int option = Some 6
+# div' (Some 12) (Some 0);;
+- : int option = None
+# div' (div' (Some 12) (Some 0)) (Some 3);;
+- : int option = None
+*)
+
- The guts of the definition of the `bind` operation amount to - specifying how to unwrap the monadic object `m`. In the bind - opertor for the option monad, we unwraped the option monad by - matching the monadic object `m` with `Some n`--whenever `m` - happend to be a box containing an integer `n`, this allowed us to - get our hands on that `n` and feed it to `f`. +Beautiful, just what we need: now we can try to divide by anything we +want, without fear that we're going to trigger any system errors. -So the "option monad" consists of the polymorphic option type, the -unit function, and the bind function. With the option monad, we can -think of the "safe division" operation +I prefer to line up the `match` alternatives by using OCaml's +built-in tuple type:
-# let divide num den = if den = 0 then None else Some (num/den);;
-val divide : int -> int -> int option = 
+let div' (u:int option) (v:int option) =
+  match (u, v) with
+	  (None, _) -> None
+    | (_, None) -> None
+    | (_, Some 0) -> None
+	| (Some x, Some y) -> Some (x / y);;
 
-as basically a function from two integers to an integer, except with -this little bit of option frill, or option plumbing, on the side. +So far so good. But what if we want to combine division with +other arithmetic operations? We need to make those other operations +aware of the possibility that one of their arguments has triggered a +presupposition failure: -A note on notation: Haskell uses the infix operator `>>=` to stand -for `bind`. I really hate that symbol. Following Wadler, I prefer to -infix five-pointed star, or on a keyboard, `*`. +
+let add' (u:int option) (v:int option) =
+  match (u, v) with
+	  (None, _) -> None
+    | (_, None) -> None
+    | (Some x, Some y) -> Some (x + y);;
+
+(*
+val add' : int option -> int option -> int option = 
+# add' (Some 12) (Some 4);;
+- : int option = Some 16
+# add' (div' (Some 12) (Some 0)) (Some 4);;
+- : int option = None
+*)
+
+This works, but is somewhat disappointing: the `add'` operation +doesn't trigger any presupposition of its own, so it is a shame that +it needs to be adjusted because someone else might make trouble. -The Monad laws --------------- - -Just like good robots, monads must obey three laws designed to prevent -them from hurting the people that use them or themselves. - -* Left identity: unit is a left identity for the bind operation. - That is, for all `f:'a -> 'a M`, where `'a M` is a monadic - object, we have `(unit x) * f == f x`. For instance, `unit` is a - function of type `'a -> 'a option`, so we have +But we can automate the adjustment. The standard way in OCaml, +Haskell, etc., is to define a `bind` operator (the name `bind` is not +well chosen to resonate with linguists, but what can you do). To continue our mnemonic association, we'll put a `'` after the name "bind" as well.
-# let ( * ) m f = match m with None -> None | Some n -> f n;;
-val ( * ) : 'a option -> ('a -> 'b option) -> 'b option = 
-# let unit x = Some x;;
-val unit : 'a -> 'a option = 
+let bind' (u: int option) (f: int -> (int option)) =
+  match u with
+	  None -> None
+    | Some x -> f x;;
 
-# unit 2;;
-- : int option = Some 2
-# unit 2 * unit;;
-- : int option = Some 2
+let add' (u: int option) (v: int option)  =
+  bind' u (fun x -> bind' v (fun y -> Some (x + y)));;
 
-# divide 6 2;;
-- : int option = Some 3
-# unit 2 * divide 6;;
-- : int option = Some 3
+let div' (u: int option) (v: int option) =
+  bind' u (fun x -> bind' v (fun y -> if (0 = y) then None else Some (x / y)));;
 
-# divide 6 0;;
+(*
+#  div' (div' (Some 12) (Some 2)) (Some 3);;
+- : int option = Some 2
+#  div' (div' (Some 12) (Some 0)) (Some 3);;
 - : int option = None
-# unit 0 * divide 6;;
+# add' (div' (Some 12) (Some 0)) (Some 3);;
 - : int option = None
+*)
 
-The parentheses is the magic for telling Ocaml that the -function to be defined (in this case, the name of the function -is `*`, pronounced "bind") is an infix operator, so we write -`m * f` or `( * ) m f` instead of `* m f`. +Compare the new definitions of `add'` and `div'` closely: the definition +for `add'` shows what it looks like to equip an ordinary operation to +survive in dangerous presupposition-filled world. Note that the new +definition of `add'` does not need to test whether its arguments are +None objects or real numbers---those details are hidden inside of the +`bind'` function. + +The definition of `div'` shows exactly what extra needs to be said in +order to trigger the no-division-by-zero presupposition. -* Associativity: bind obeys a kind of associativity, like this: +[Linguitics note: Dividing by zero is supposed to feel like a kind of +presupposition failure. If we wanted to adapt this approach to +building a simple account of presupposition projection, we would have +to do several things. First, we would have to make use of the +polymorphism of the `option` type. In the arithmetic example, we only +made use of `int option`s, but when we're composing natural language +expression meanings, we'll need to use types like `N option`, `Det option`, +`VP option`, and so on. But that works automatically, because we can use +any type for the `'a` in `'a option`. Ultimately, we'd want to have a +theory of accommodation, and a theory of the situations in which +material within the sentence can satisfy presuppositions for other +material that otherwise would trigger a presupposition violation; but, +not surprisingly, these refinements will require some more +sophisticated techniques than the super-simple option monad.] - `(m * f) * g == m * (fun x -> f x * g)` - If you don't understand why the lambda form is necessary (the "fun - x" part), you need to look again at the type of bind. +Monads in General +----------------- - Some examples of associativity in the option monad: +We've just seen a way to separate thinking about error conditions +(such as trying to divide by zero) from thinking about normal +arithmetic computations. We did this by making use of the `option` +type: in each place where we had something of type `int`, we put +instead something of type `int option`, which is a sum type consisting +either of one choice with an `int` payload, or else a `None` choice +which we interpret as signaling that something has gone wrong. -
-# Some 3 * unit * unit;; 
-- : int option = Some 3
-# Some 3 * (fun x -> unit x * unit);;
-- : int option = Some 3
+The goal was to make normal computing as convenient as possible: when
+we're adding or multiplying, we don't have to worry about generating
+any new errors, so we would rather not think about the difference
+between `int`s and `int option`s.  We tried to accomplish this by
+defining a `bind` operator, which enabled us to peel away the `option`
+husk to get at the delicious integer inside.  There was also a
+homework problem which made this even more convenient by defining a
+`lift` operator that mapped any binary operation on plain integers
+into a lifted operation that understands how to deal with `int
+option`s in a sensible way.
+
+So what exactly is a monad?  We can consider a monad to be a system
+that provides at least the following three elements:
 
-# Some 3 * divide 6 * divide 2;;
-- : int option = Some 1
-# Some 3 * (fun x -> divide 6 x * divide 2);;
-- : int option = Some 1
+*	A complex type that's built around some more basic type. Usually
+	the complex type will be polymorphic, and so can apply to different basic types.
+	In our division example, the polymorphism of the `'a option` type
+	provides a way of building an option out of any other type of object.
+	People often use a container metaphor: if `u` has type `int option`,
+	then `u` is a box that (may) contain an integer.
+
+		type 'a option = None | Some of 'a;;
+
+*	A way to turn an ordinary value into a monadic value.  In OCaml, we
+	did this for any integer `x` by mapping it to
+	the option `Some x`.  In the general case, this operation is
+	known as `unit` or `return.` Both of those names are terrible. This
+	operation is only very loosely connected to the `unit` type we were
+	discussing earlier (whose value is written `()`). It's also only
+	very loosely connected to the "return" keyword in many other
+	programming languages like C. But these are the names that the literature
+	uses.  [The rationale for "unit" comes from the monad laws
+	(see below), where the unit function serves as an identity,
+	just like the unit number (i.e., 1) serves as the identity
+	object for multiplication.  The rationale for "return" comes
+	from a misguided desire to resonate with C programmers and
+	other imperative types.]
+
+	The unit/return operation is a way of lifting an ordinary object into
+	the monadic box you've defined, in the simplest way possible. You can think
+	of the singleton function as an example: it takes an ordinary object
+	and returns a set containing that object. In the example we've been
+	considering:
+
+		let unit x = Some x;;
+		val unit : 'a -> 'a option = 
+
+	So `unit` is a way to put something inside of a monadic box. It's crucial
+	to the usefulness of monads that there will be monadic boxes that
+	aren't the result of that operation. In the option/maybe monad, for
+	instance, there's also the empty box `None`. In another (whimsical)
+	example, you might have, in addition to boxes merely containing integers,
+	special boxes that contain integers and also sing a song when they're opened. 
+
+	The unit/return operation will always be the simplest, conceptually
+	most straightforward way to lift an ordinary value into a monadic value
+	of the monadic type in question.
+
+*	Thirdly, an operation that's often called `bind`. This is another
+	unfortunate name: this operation is only very loosely connected to
+	what linguists usually mean by "binding." In our option/maybe monad, the
+	bind operation is:
+
+		let bind u f = match u with None -> None | Some x -> f x;;
+		val bind : 'a option -> ('a -> 'b option) -> 'b option = 
+
+	Note the type: `bind` takes two arguments: first, a monadic box
+	(in this case, an `'a option`); and second, a function from
+	ordinary objects to monadic boxes. `bind` then returns a monadic
+	value: in this case, a `'b option` (you can start with, e.g., `int option`s
+	and end with `bool option`s).
+
+	Intuitively, the interpretation of what `bind` does is this:
+	the first argument is a monadic value `u`, which 
+	evaluates to a box that (maybe) contains some ordinary value, call it `x`.
+	Then the second argument uses `x` to compute a new monadic
+	value.  Conceptually, then, we have
+
+		let bind u f = (let x = unbox u in f x);;
+
+	The guts of the definition of the `bind` operation amount to
+	specifying how to unbox the monadic value `u`.  In the `bind`
+	operator for the option monad, we unboxed the monadic value by
+	matching it with the pattern `Some x`---whenever `u`
+	happened to be a box containing an integer `x`, this allowed us to
+	get our hands on that `x` and feed it to `f`.
+
+	If the monadic box didn't contain any ordinary value,
+	we instead pass through the empty box unaltered.
+
+	In a more complicated case, like our whimsical "singing box" example
+	from before, if the monadic value happened to be a singing box
+	containing an integer `x`, then the `bind` operation would probably
+	be defined so as to make sure that the result of `f x` was also
+	a singing box. If `f` also wanted to insert a song, you'd have to decide
+	whether both songs would be carried through, or only one of them.
+        (Are you beginning to realize how wierd and wonderful monads
+	can be?)
+
+	There is no single `bind` function that dictates how this must go.
+	For each new monadic type, this has to be worked out in an
+	useful way.
+
+So the "option/maybe monad" consists of the polymorphic `option` type, the
+`unit`/return function, and the `bind` function.
+
+
+A note on notation: Haskell uses the infix operator `>>=` to stand for
+`bind`: wherever you see `u >>= f`, that means `bind u f`.
+Wadler uses ⋆, but that hasn't been widely adopted (unfortunately).
+
+Also, if you ever see this notation:
+
+	do
+		x <- u
+		f x
+
+That's a Haskell shorthand for `u >>= (\x -> f x)`, that is, `bind u f`.
+Similarly:
+
+	do
+		x <- u
+		y <- v
+		f x y
+
+is shorthand for `u >>= (\x -> v >>= (\y -> f x y))`, that is, `bind u
+(fun x -> bind v (fun y -> f x y))`. Those who did last week's
+homework may recognize this last expression.  You can think of the
+notation like this: take the singing box `u` and evaluate it (which
+includes listening to the song).  Take the int contained in the
+singing box (the end result of evaluting `u`) and bind the variable
+`x` to that int.  So `x <- u` means "Sing me up an int, which I'll call
+`x`".
+
+(Note that the above "do" notation comes from Haskell. We're mentioning it here
+because you're likely to see it when reading about monads. It won't work in
+OCaml. In fact, the `<-` symbol already means something different in OCaml,
+having to do with mutable record fields. We'll be discussing mutation someday
+soon.)
+
+As we proceed, we'll be seeing a variety of other monad systems. For example, another monad is the list monad. Here the monadic type is:
+
+	# type 'a list
+
+The `unit`/return operation is:
+
+	# let unit x = [x];;
+	val unit : 'a -> 'a list = 
+
+That is, the simplest way to lift an `'a` into an `'a list` is just to make a
+singleton list of that `'a`. Finally, the `bind` operation is:
+
+	# let bind u f = List.concat (List.map f u);;
+	val bind : 'a list -> ('a -> 'b list) -> 'b list = 
+	
+What's going on here? Well, consider `List.map f u` first. This goes through all
+the members of the list `u`. There may be just a single member, if `u = unit x`
+for some `x`. Or on the other hand, there may be no members, or many members. In
+any case, we go through them in turn and feed them to `f`. Anything that gets fed
+to `f` will be an `'a`. `f` takes those values, and for each one, returns a `'b list`.
+For example, it might return a list of all that value's divisors. Then we'll
+have a bunch of `'b list`s. The surrounding `List.concat ( )` converts that bunch
+of `'b list`s into a single `'b list`:
+
+	# List.concat [[1]; [1;2]; [1;3]; [1;2;4]]
+	- : int list = [1; 1; 2; 1; 3; 1; 2; 4]
+
+So now we've seen two monads: the option/maybe monad, and the list monad. For any
+monadic system, there has to be a specification of the complex monad type,
+which will be parameterized on some simpler type `'a`, and the `unit`/return
+operation, and the `bind` operation. These will be different for different
+monadic systems.
+
+Many monadic systems will also define special-purpose operations that only make
+sense for that system.
+
+Although the `unit` and `bind` operation are defined differently for different
+monadic systems, there are some general rules they always have to follow.
 
-# Some 3 * divide 2 * divide 6;;
-- : int option = None
-# Some 3 * (fun x -> divide 2 x * divide 6);;
-- : int option = None
-
-Of course, associativity must hold for arbitrary functions of -type `'a -> M 'a`, where `M` is the monad type. It's easy to -convince yourself that the bind operation for the option monad -obeys associativity by dividing the inputs into cases: if `m` +The Monad Laws +-------------- + +Just like good robots, monads must obey three laws designed to prevent +them from hurting the people that use them or themselves. + +* **Left identity: unit is a left identity for the bind operation.** + That is, for all `f:'a -> 'a m`, where `'a m` is a monadic + type, we have `(unit x) >>= f == f x`. For instance, `unit` is itself + a function of type `'a -> 'a m`, so we can use it for `f`: + + # let unit x = Some x;; + val unit : 'a -> 'a option = + # let ( >>= ) u f = match u with None -> None | Some x -> f x;; + val ( >>= ) : 'a option -> ('a -> 'b option) -> 'b option = + + The parentheses is the magic for telling OCaml that the + function to be defined (in this case, the name of the function + is `>>=`, pronounced "bind") is an infix operator, so we write + `u >>= f` or equivalently `( >>= ) u f` instead of `>>= u + f`. Now, for a less trivial instance of a function from `int`s + to `int option`s: + + # unit 2;; + - : int option = Some 2 + # unit 2 >>= unit;; + - : int option = Some 2 + + # let divide x y = if 0 = y then None else Some (x/y);; + val divide : int -> int -> int option = + # divide 6 2;; + - : int option = Some 3 + # unit 2 >>= divide 6;; + - : int option = Some 3 + + # divide 6 0;; + - : int option = None + # unit 0 >>= divide 6;; + - : int option = None + + +* **Associativity: bind obeys a kind of associativity**. Like this: + + (u >>= f) >>= g == u >>= (fun x -> f x >>= g) + + If you don't understand why the lambda form is necessary (the "fun + x" part), you need to look again at the type of `bind`. + + Some examples of associativity in the option monad (bear in + mind that in the Ocaml implementation of integer division, 2/3 + evaluates to zero, throwing away the remainder): + + # Some 3 >>= unit >>= unit;; + - : int option = Some 3 + # Some 3 >>= (fun x -> unit x >>= unit);; + - : int option = Some 3 + + # Some 3 >>= divide 6 >>= divide 2;; + - : int option = Some 1 + # Some 3 >>= (fun x -> divide 6 x >>= divide 2);; + - : int option = Some 1 + + # Some 3 >>= divide 2 >>= divide 6;; + - : int option = None + # Some 3 >>= (fun x -> divide 2 x >>= divide 6);; + - : int option = None + +Of course, associativity must hold for *arbitrary* functions of +type `'a -> 'a m`, where `m` is the monad type. It's easy to +convince yourself that the `bind` operation for the option monad +obeys associativity by dividing the inputs into cases: if `u` matches `None`, both computations will result in `None`; if -`m` matches `Some n`, and `f n` evalutes to `None`, then both +`u` matches `Some x`, and `f x` evalutes to `None`, then both computations will again result in `None`; and if the value of -`f n` matches `Some r`, then both computations will evaluate -to `g r`. +`f x` matches `Some y`, then both computations will evaluate +to `g y`. -* Right identity: unit is a right identity for bind. That is, - `m * unit == m` for all monad objects `m`. For instance, +* **Right identity: unit is a right identity for bind.** That is, + `u >>= unit == u` for all monad objects `u`. For instance, -
-# Some 3 * unit;;
-- : int option = Some 3
-# None * unit;;
-- : 'a option = None
-
+ # Some 3 >>= unit;; + - : int option = Some 3 + # None >>= unit;; + - : 'a option = None -Now, if you studied algebra, you'll remember that a *monoid* is an + +More details about monads +------------------------- + +If you studied algebra, you'll remember that a *monoid* is an associative operation with a left and right identity. For instance, the natural numbers along with multiplication form a monoid with 1 -serving as the left and right identity. That is, temporarily using -`*` to mean arithmetic multiplication, `1 * n == n == n * 1` for all -`n`, and `(a * b) * c == a * (b * c)` for all `a`, `b`, and `c`. As +serving as the left and right identity. That is, `1 * u == u == u * 1` for all +`u`, and `(u * v) * w == u * (v * w)` for all `u`, `v`, and `w`. As presented here, a monad is not exactly a monoid, because (unlike the arguments of a monoid operation) the two arguments of the bind are of -different types. But if we generalize bind so that both arguments are -of type `'a -> M 'a`, then we get plain identity laws and -associativity laws, and the monad laws are exactly like the monoid -laws (see , near the bottom). +different types. But it's possible to make the connection between +monads and monoids much closer. This is discussed in [Monads in Category +Theory](/advanced_topics/monads_in_category_theory). +See also . +Here are some papers that introduced monads into functional programming: -Monad outlook -------------- +* [Eugenio Moggi, Notions of Computation and Monads](http://www.disi.unige.it/person/MoggiE/ftp/ic91.pdf): Information and Computation 93 (1) 1991. -We're going to be using monads for a number of different things in the -weeks to come. The first main application will be the State monad, -which will enable us to model mutation: variables whose values appear -to change as the computation progresses. Later, we will study the -Continuation monad. - -The intensionality monad ------------------------- +* [Philip Wadler. Monads for Functional Programming](http://homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/wadler/papers/marktoberdorf/baastad.pdf): +in M. Broy, editor, *Marktoberdorf Summer School on Program Design +Calculi*, Springer Verlag, NATO ASI Series F: Computer and systems +sciences, Volume 118, August 1992. Also in J. Jeuring and E. Meijer, +editors, *Advanced Functional Programming*, Springer Verlag, +LNCS 925, 1995. Some errata fixed August 2001. This paper has a great first +line: **Shall I be pure, or impure?** + -In the meantime, we'll see a linguistic application for monads: -intensional function application. In Shan (2001) [Monads for natural -language semantics](http://arxiv.org/abs/cs/0205026v1), Ken shows that -making expressions sensitive to the world of evaluation is -conceptually the same thing as making use of a *reader monad* (which -we'll see again soon). This technique was beautifully re-invented -by Ben-Avi and Winter (2007) in their paper [A modular -approach to -intensionality](http://parles.upf.es/glif/pub/sub11/individual/bena_wint.pdf), -though without explicitly using monads. +* [Philip Wadler. The essence of functional programming](http://homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/wadler/papers/essence/essence.ps): +invited talk, *19'th Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages*, ACM Press, Albuquerque, January 1992. + -All of the code in the discussion below can be found here: [[intensionality-monad.ml]]. -To run it, download the file, start Ocaml, and say +* [Daniel Friedman. A Schemer's View of Monads](/schemersviewofmonads.ps): from but the link above is to a local copy. - # #use "intensionality-monad.ml";; +There's a long list of monad tutorials on the [[Offsite Reading]] page. Skimming the titles makes us laugh. -Note the extra `#` attached to the directive `use`. +In the presentation we gave above---which follows the functional programming conventions---we took `unit`/return and `bind` as the primitive operations. From these a number of other general monad operations can be derived. It's also possible to take some of the others as primitive. The [Monads in Category +Theory](/advanced_topics/monads_in_category_theory) notes do so, for example. -Here's the idea: since people can have different attitudes towards -different propositions that happen to have the same truth value, we -can't have sentences denoting simple truth values. If we did, then if John -believed that the earth was round, it would force him to believe -Fermat's last theorem holds, since both propositions are equally true. -The traditional solution is to allow sentences to denote a function -from worlds to truth values, what Montague called an intension. -So if `s` is the type of possible worlds, we have the following -situation: - - -
-Extensional types                 Intensional types       Examples
--------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-S         s->t                    s->t                    John left
-DP        s->e                    s->e                    John
-VP        s->e->t                 s->(s->e)->t            left
-Vt        s->e->e->t              s->(s->e)->(s->e)->t    saw
-Vs        s->t->e->t              s->(s->t)->(s->e)->t    thought
-
+Here are some of the other general monad operations. You don't have to master these; they're collected here for your reference. -This system is modeled on the way Montague arranged his grammar. -There are significant simplifications: for instance, determiner -phrases are thought of as corresponding to individuals rather than to -generalized quantifiers. If you're curious about the initial `s`'s -in the extensional types, they're there because the behavior of these -expressions depends on which world they're evaluated at. If you are -in a situation in which you can hold the evaluation world constant, -you can further simplify the extensional types. Usually, the -dependence of the extension of an expression on the evaluation world -is hidden in a superscript, or built into the lexical interpretation -function. - -The main difference between the intensional types and the extensional -types is that in the intensional types, the arguments are functions -from worlds to extensions: intransitive verb phrases like "left" now -take intensional concepts as arguments (type s->e) rather than plain -individuals (type e), and attitude verbs like "think" now take -propositions (type s->t) rather than truth values (type t). - -The intenstional types are more complicated than the intensional -types. Wouldn't it be nice to keep the complicated types to just -those attitude verbs that need to worry about intensions, and keep the -rest of the grammar as extensional as possible? This desire is -parallel to our earlier desire to limit the concern about division by -zero to the division function, and let the other functions, like -addition or multiplication, ignore division-by-zero problems as much -as possible. - -So here's what we do: - -In Ocaml, we'll use integers to model possible worlds: - - type s = int;; - type e = char;; - type t = bool;; - -Characters (characters in the computational sense, i.e., letters like -`'a'` and `'b'`, not Kaplanian characters) will model individuals, and -Ocaml booleans will serve for truth values. +You may sometimes see: -
-type 'a intension = s -> 'a;;
-let unit x (w:s) = x;;
+	u >> v
 
-let ann = unit 'a';;
-let bill = unit 'b';;
-let cam = unit 'c';;
-
+That just means: -In our monad, the intension of an extensional type `'a` is `s -> 'a`, -a function from worlds to extensions. Our unit will be the constant -function (an instance of the K combinator) that returns the same -individual at each world. + u >>= fun _ -> v -Then `ann = unit 'a'` is a rigid designator: a constant function from -worlds to individuals that returns `'a'` no matter which world is used -as an argument. +that is: -Let's test compliance with the left identity law: + bind u (fun _ -> v) -
-# let bind m f (w:s) = f (m w) w;;
-val bind : (s -> 'a) -> ('a -> s -> 'b) -> s -> 'b = 
-# bind (unit 'a') unit 1;;
-- : char = 'a'
-
+You could also do `bind u (fun x -> v)`; we use the `_` for the function argument to be explicit that that argument is never going to be used. -We'll assume that this and the other laws always hold. +The `lift` operation we asked you to define for last week's homework is a common operation. The second argument to `bind` converts `'a` values into `'b m` values---that is, into instances of the monadic type. What if we instead had a function that merely converts `'a` values into `'b` values, and we want to use it with our monadic type? Then we "lift" that function into an operation on the monad. For example: -We now build up some extensional meanings: + # let even x = (x mod 2 = 0);; + val g : int -> bool = - let left w x = match (w,x) with (2,'c') -> false | _ -> true;; +`even` has the type `int -> bool`. Now what if we want to convert it into an operation on the option/maybe monad? -This function says that everyone always left, except for Cam in world -2 (i.e., `left 2 'c' == false`). + # let lift g = fun u -> bind u (fun x -> Some (g x));; + val lift : ('a -> 'b) -> 'a option -> 'b option = -Then the way to evaluate an extensional sentence is to determine the -extension of the verb phrase, and then apply that extension to the -extension of the subject: +`lift even` will now be a function from `int option`s to `bool option`s. We can +also define a lift operation for binary functions: -
-let extapp fn arg w = fn w (arg w);;
+	# let lift2 g = fun u v -> bind u (fun x -> bind v (fun y -> Some (g x y)));;
+	val lift2 : ('a -> 'b -> 'c) -> 'a option -> 'b option -> 'c option = 
 
-extapp left ann 1;;
-# - : bool = true
+`lift2 (+)` will now be a function from `int option`s  and `int option`s to `int option`s. This should look familiar to those who did the homework.
 
-extapp left cam 2;;
-# - : bool = false
-
+The `lift` operation (just `lift`, not `lift2`) is sometimes also called the `map` operation. (In Haskell, they say `fmap` or `<$>`.) And indeed when we're working with the list monad, `lift f` is exactly `List.map f`! -`extapp` stands for "extensional function application". -So Ann left in world 1, but Cam didn't leave in world 2. +Wherever we have a well-defined monad, we can define a lift/map operation for that monad. The examples above used `Some (g x)` and so on; in the general case we'd use `unit (g x)`, using the specific `unit` operation for the monad we're working with. -A transitive predicate: +In general, any lift/map operation can be relied on to satisfy these laws: - let saw w x y = (w < 2) && (y < x);; - extapp (extapp saw bill) ann 1;; (* true *) - extapp (extapp saw bill) ann 2;; (* false *) + * lift id = id + * lift (compose f g) = compose (lift f) (lift g) -In world 1, Ann saw Bill and Cam, and Bill saw Cam. No one saw anyone -in world two. +where `id` is `fun x -> x` and `compose f g` is `fun x -> f (g x)`. If you think about the special case of the map operation on lists, this should make sense. `List.map id lst` should give you back `lst` again. And you'd expect these +two computations to give the same result: -Good. Now for intensions: + List.map (fun x -> f (g x)) lst + List.map f (List.map g lst) - let intapp fn arg w = fn w arg;; +Another general monad operation is called `ap` in Haskell---short for "apply." (They also use `<*>`, but who can remember that?) This works like this: -The only difference between intensional application and extensional -application is that we don't feed the evaluation world to the argument. -(See Montague's rules of (intensional) functional application, T4 -- T10.) -In other words, instead of taking an extension as an argument, -Montague's predicates take a full-blown intension. + ap [f] [x; y] = [f x; f y] + ap (Some f) (Some x) = Some (f x) -But for so-called extensional predicates like "left" and "saw", -the extra power is not used. We'd like to define intensional versions -of these predicates that depend only on their extensional essence. -Just as we used bind to define a version of addition that interacted -with the option monad, we now use bind to intensionalize an -extensional verb: +and so on. Here are the laws that any `ap` operation can be relied on to satisfy: -
-let lift pred w arg = bind arg (fun x w -> pred w x) w;;
+	ap (unit id) u = u
+	ap (ap (ap (unit compose) u) v) w = ap u (ap v w)
+	ap (unit f) (unit x) = unit (f x)
+	ap u (unit x) = ap (unit (fun f -> f x)) u
 
-intapp (lift left) ann 1;; (* true: Ann still left in world 1 *)
-intapp (lift left) cam 2;; (* false: Cam still didn't leave in world 2 *)
-
+Another general monad operation is called `join`. This is the operation that takes you from an iterated monad to a single monad. Remember when we were explaining the `bind` operation for the list monad, there was a step where +we went from: -Because `bind` unwraps the intensionality of the argument, when the -lifted "left" receives an individual concept (e.g., `unit 'a'`) as -argument, it's the extension of the individual concept (i.e., `'a'`) -that gets fed to the basic extensional version of "left". (For those -of you who know Montague's PTQ, this use of bind captures Montague's -third meaning postulate.) + [[1]; [1;2]; [1;3]; [1;2;4]] -Likewise for extensional transitive predicates like "saw": +to: -
-let lift2 pred w arg1 arg2 = 
-  bind arg1 (fun x -> bind arg2 (fun y w -> pred w x y)) w;;
-intapp (intapp (lift2 saw) bill) ann 1;;  (* true: Ann saw Bill in world 1 *)
-intapp (intapp (lift2 saw) bill) ann 2;;  (* false: No one saw anyone in world 2 *)
-
+ [1; 1; 2; 1; 3; 1; 2; 4] -Crucially, an intensional predicate does not use `bind` to consume its -arguments. Attitude verbs like "thought" are intensional with respect -to their sentential complement, but extensional with respect to their -subject (as Montague noticed, almost all verbs in English are -extensional with respect to their subject; a possible exception is "appear"): +That is the `join` operation. -
-let think (w:s) (p:s->t) (x:e) = 
-  match (x, p 2) with ('a', false) -> false | _ -> p w;;
-
+All of these operations can be defined in terms of `bind` and `unit`; or alternatively, some of them can be taken as primitive and `bind` can be defined in terms of them. Here are various interdefinitions: -Ann disbelieves any proposition that is false in world 2. Apparently, -she firmly believes we're in world 2. Everyone else believes a -proposition iff that proposition is true in the world of evaluation. + lift f u = u >>= compose unit f + lift f u = ap (unit f) u + lift2 f u v = u >>= (fun x -> v >>= (fun y -> unit (f x y))) + lift2 f u v = ap (lift f u) v = ap (ap (unit f) u) v + ap u v = u >>= (fun f -> lift f v) + ap u v = lift2 id u v + join m2 = m2 >>= id + u >>= f = join (lift f u) + u >> v = u >>= (fun _ -> v) + u >> v = lift2 (fun _ -> id) u v -
-intapp (lift (intapp think
-                     (intapp (lift left)
-                             (unit 'b'))))
-       (unit 'a') 
-1;; (* true *)
-
-So in world 1, Ann thinks that Bill left (because in world 2, Bill did leave). -The `lift` is there because "think Bill left" is extensional wrt its -subject. The important bit is that "think" takes the intension of -"Bill left" as its first argument. +Monad outlook +------------- -
-intapp (lift (intapp think
-                     (intapp (lift left)
-                             (unit 'c'))))
-       (unit 'a') 
-1;; (* false *)
-
+We're going to be using monads for a number of different things in the +weeks to come. The first main application will be the State monad, +which will enable us to model mutation: variables whose values appear +to change as the computation progresses. Later, we will study the +Continuation monad. -But even in world 1, Ann doesn't believe that Cam left (even though he -did: `intapp (lift left) cam 1 == true`). Ann's thoughts are hung up -on what is happening in world 2, where Cam doesn't leave. +In the meantime, we'll look at several linguistic applications for monads, based +on what's called the *reader monad*. -*Small project*: add intersective ("red") and non-intersective - adjectives ("good") to the fragment. The intersective adjectives - will be extensional with respect to the nominal they combine with - (using bind), and the non-intersective adjectives will take - intensional arguments. +##[[Reader monad]]## -Finally, note that within an intensional grammar, extensional funtion -application is essentially just bind: +##[[Intensionality monad]]## -
-# let swap f x y = f y x;;
-# bind cam (swap left) 2;;
-- : bool = false
-