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arXiv · 2601.11432

The unreasonable effectiveness of pattern matching

Gary Lupyan·Blaise Agüera y Arcas
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Abstract

We report on an astonishing ability of large language models (LLMs) to make sense of "Jabberwocky" language in which most or all content words have been randomly replaced by nonsense strings, e.g., translating "He dwushed a ghanc zawk" to "He dragged a spare chair". This result addresses ongoing controversies regarding how to best think of what LLMs are doing: are they a language mimic, a database, a blurry version of the Web? The ability of LLMs to recover meaning from structural patterns speaks to the unreasonable effectiveness of pattern-matching. Pattern-matching is not an alternative to "real" intelligence, but rather a key ingredient.

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Gary Lupyan, Blaise Agüera y Arcas. 2026-01-16. The unreasonable effectiveness of pattern matching. https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.11432

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