Position: Natural Language Should Not Fully Replace Formal Languages

Short summary

This position paper argues natural language should not fully replace formal languages because it is optimized for underspecification in open-ended contexts. The authors introduce a task-specificity framework and prove a specificity crossover theorem showing a threshold where expressing formal requirements in natural language becomes costlier than direct formal specification. They advocate hybrid systems that let users move across the specificity spectrum.

• •Argues natural language cannot fully replace formal languages due to inherent underspecification
• •Proves a specificity crossover theorem: beyond a threshold, formal specification is cheaper than natural language
• •Advocates hybrid systems combining natural and formal languages across modalities

Generated with AI, which can make mistakes.