On Compositionality and Bidirectional Optimization
Helen de Hoop, Reinhard Blutner, Petra Hendriks · Journal of Cognitive Science · 2007
In this paper we revisit the semantic principle of compositionality and argue that compositionality is bidirectional optimization. Underspecification approaches to natural language interpretation generally start with an underspecified or weak meaning, which is strengthened by contextual information. By contrast, the bidirectional optimization approach we advocate proceeds from the strongest possible meaning. This meaning can be changed or weakened by contextual information. Under this approach, the meaning of an utterance is composed in a functional rather than a concatenative way, while contextual sources of information play a major role. Yet, because the context of any utterance is in principle the same for the speaker and the hearer, composition and decomposition proceed hand in hand. Hence, bidirectional optimization ultimately guarantees (functional) compositionality. The Principle of Compositionality One of the key principles in formal approaches to natural language interpretation is the principle of compositionality, which expresses the idea that the meaning of a complex * We thank three anonymous reviewers and Chungmin Lee for their stimulating comments and questions. Helen de Hoop and Petra Hendriks gratefully acknowledge the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) for financial support of their research.