From quantum semantic states to quantum semantic dynamics: a multiscale theory of literary meaning evolution

Literary interpretation changes as readers encounter new passages, answer interpretive questions, and revisit earlier material in light of later context. Quantum cognition provides a probability calculus for judgments whose probabilities depend on context and probe order, but the use of Hilbert-space notation alone does not establish nonclassical behavior. This article develops Quantum Semantic Dynamics (QSD) as a constrained quantum-probabilistic model and distinguishes three claim levels: quantum-inspired representation, quantum-probabilistic structure, and intrinsic nonclassicality. The present paper advances only the second. The confirmatory implementation restricts the local semantic state to a two-dimensional space, fixes probe geometry in an independent pilot sample, reconstructs a population-level 2 × 2 density state from three linearly independent binary probe bases, and gives the off-diagonal state components an operational meaning through cross-basis judgments. Contextual evolution is restricted to a one-parameter completely positive trace-preserving contraction toward a preregistered context-target state rather than an arbitrary latent transition. Two probes form the randomized A → B/B → A sequence used for the quantum question-order (QQ) diagnostic; the third is measured in an independent arm for state identification. The paper derives the QQ equality, states its assumptions, and adds an uncertainty-style consistency constraint for the frozen noncommuting probe geometry. QSD is compared with explicitly defined classical comparator classes ranging from a static commutative model to matched sequential latent-state models. Compatibility with QQ or the Hilbert representation is not treated as proof of intrinsic nonclassicality; such a claim would require a separate contextuality analysis against an explicitly defined classical representability criterion. The resulting architecture makes the mathematical status, empirical burden, and rejection conditions of QSD explicit before data collection.