Semantics

This article introduces some of the basic concepts and issues of computational semantics and briefly compares two models of semantic representation, which have been proposed in the literature, and considers the ways in which each of them deals with the syntax-semantics interface. It then shows the contrast between the general approach to the syntax-semantics interface, which is common to most systems of computational semantics, and an alternative view that characterizes Chomsky's derivational view of syntax on the other. Furthermore, it focuses on the possibility of using underspecified representations of meaning while still sustaining a systematic relation between the meaning of an expression and the meanings of its constituents. It briefly looks at the move from static to dynamic theories of meaning in an attempt to model the interpretation of utterances in discourse and dialogue.