The Principle of Compositionality
Cui Jia-yu · 2014
The principle of compositionality is known as guiding principle of Montague grammar. Scholars consider that this principle has two meanings: 1. the overall meaning of the compound expression is a function of its components; 2. syntax and semantics corresponds with each other in their grammar system. Based on these two characteristics,this paper introduces the definition of compositionality in Montague grammar,explains application of this principle in Chinese from both perspectives of logic and language,analyzes syntactic and semantic correspondence,and finally discusses the challenge of DRT to compositionality principle. The value and theoretical significance of principle of compositionality can therefore be proved.