Semantics, Knowledge, and NP Modification
Stephen Crain, Henry Hamburger · Formal Grammar · 1992
Abstract The goal of semantic theory is to provide a systematic account of the meanings of the well-formed expressions of natural language. This paper outlines a semantic theory of the workings of modifiers in English noun phrases. Our initial orientation is to pursue as far as possible a compositional, model-theoretic semantics that is independent of knowledge and psychological processing. However, we find phenomena that suggest modifications to compositionality and model theory and that require some clarification of the interaction of semantics with both knowledge and processing.