The Syntax/Semantics Interface: Compositionality Issues

This paper explores the hypothesis of Direct Compositionality, which is the hypothesis that natural language syntax and semantics work in tandem. The syntax is a system proving expressions well-formed (often proving larger expressions well-formed on the basis of their smaller constituent parts) while the semantics works directly with this to supply a model theoretic interpretation to each expression as it is built in the syntax. The paper considers a few apparent challenges to this hypothesis, and exposits the types of tools which have been used in order to meet these challenges. We begin with some classic results from Montague [1]; turn to extensions of this program that were explored in subsequent work, and end with some recent work of the present author. The goal is to show that many of the apparent challenges can easily be met by simply viewing meanings as slightly more complex packagings than an initial naive view would have it; the tools for accomplishing this themselves are quite simple.