On Tables with Numbers, with Numbers

2024/08/12 by Konstantinos Kogkalidis, Kogkalidis, Konstantinos, Stergios Chatzikyriakidis +1 · 2 citations
Mathematics · #Computation and Language (cs.CL) #FOS: Computer and information sciences #History and Theory of Mathematics

paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2408.06062

openalex publication_date 2024/08/12 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

This paper is a critical reflection on the epistemic culture of contemporary computational linguistics, framed in the context of its growing obsession with tables with numbers. We argue against tables with numbers on the basis of their epistemic irrelevance, their environmental impact, their role in enabling and exacerbating social inequalities, and their deep ties to commercial applications and profit-driven research. We substantiate our arguments with empirical evidence drawn from a meta-analysis of computational linguistics research over the last decade.

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• Souper-Model: How Simple Arithmetic Unlocks State-of-the-Art LLM Performance
• Interdisciplinary Research in Conversation: A Case Study in Computational Morphology for Language Documentation

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