@inproceedings{sanchez-carmona-etal-2026-theoretical,
title = "A Theoretical Model of Hallucinations in {NLP} Large Language Models",
author = "Sanchez Carmona, Vicente Ivan and
Zhang, Yuming and
Zhou, Junyu and
Jiang, Shanshan and
Dong, Bin",
editor = "Zhang, Chen and
Allaway, Emily and
M{'}hamdi, Meryem and
Limkonchotiwat, Peerat and
Bai, Richard He and
T.Y.S.S., Santosh and
Thapa, Surendrabikram and
Li, Yinqiao",
booktitle = "Proceedings of the 10th Widening {NLP} Workshop",
month = oct,
year = "2026",
address = "Budapest, Hungary",
publisher = "Association for Computational Linguistics",
url = "https://aclanthology.org/2026.winlp-main.16/",
pages = "181--207",
ISBN = "979-8-89176-472-9",
abstract = "NLP Large Language Models have had a deep impact not only on research but also on society. However, there is one problem underlying their own nature which forbids them to be fully trusted and accountable: Hallucinations {--} a phenomenon that calls for a scientific account in the form of a theoretical model that represents the underlying rationale of how it emerges. In this paper, we present such a model. In the same spirit as in other fields proposing models of natural phenomena {--} such as rainfall {--} or social phenomena {--} such as knowledge creation in organizations {--} we propose a theoretical model that serves to explain hallucinations by synthesizing in an abstract and structured framework how the interrelations and interactions of more than 50 factors give rise to this phenomenon helping us to better understand its complexity and idiosyncrasies."
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<abstract>NLP Large Language Models have had a deep impact not only on research but also on society. However, there is one problem underlying their own nature which forbids them to be fully trusted and accountable: Hallucinations – a phenomenon that calls for a scientific account in the form of a theoretical model that represents the underlying rationale of how it emerges. In this paper, we present such a model. In the same spirit as in other fields proposing models of natural phenomena – such as rainfall – or social phenomena – such as knowledge creation in organizations – we propose a theoretical model that serves to explain hallucinations by synthesizing in an abstract and structured framework how the interrelations and interactions of more than 50 factors give rise to this phenomenon helping us to better understand its complexity and idiosyncrasies.</abstract>
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%0 Conference Proceedings
%T A Theoretical Model of Hallucinations in NLP Large Language Models
%A Sanchez Carmona, Vicente Ivan
%A Zhang, Yuming
%A Zhou, Junyu
%A Jiang, Shanshan
%A Dong, Bin
%Y Zhang, Chen
%Y Allaway, Emily
%Y M’hamdi, Meryem
%Y Limkonchotiwat, Peerat
%Y Bai, Richard He
%Y T.Y.S.S., Santosh
%Y Thapa, Surendrabikram
%Y Li, Yinqiao
%S Proceedings of the 10th Widening NLP Workshop
%D 2026
%8 October
%I Association for Computational Linguistics
%C Budapest, Hungary
%@ 979-8-89176-472-9
%F sanchez-carmona-etal-2026-theoretical
%X NLP Large Language Models have had a deep impact not only on research but also on society. However, there is one problem underlying their own nature which forbids them to be fully trusted and accountable: Hallucinations – a phenomenon that calls for a scientific account in the form of a theoretical model that represents the underlying rationale of how it emerges. In this paper, we present such a model. In the same spirit as in other fields proposing models of natural phenomena – such as rainfall – or social phenomena – such as knowledge creation in organizations – we propose a theoretical model that serves to explain hallucinations by synthesizing in an abstract and structured framework how the interrelations and interactions of more than 50 factors give rise to this phenomenon helping us to better understand its complexity and idiosyncrasies.
%U https://aclanthology.org/2026.winlp-main.16/
%P 181-207
Markdown (Informal)
[A Theoretical Model of Hallucinations in NLP Large Language Models](https://aclanthology.org/2026.winlp-main.16/) (Sanchez Carmona et al., WiNLP 2026)
ACL