Oxford Handbook of Compositionality (Oxford Handbooks in Linguistics)

In this book leading scholars from every relevant field report on all aspects of compositionality, the notion that the meaning of an expression can be derived from its parts. Understanding how compositionality works is a central element of syntactic and semantic analysis and a challenge for models of cognition. It is a key concept in linguistics and philosophy and in the cognitive sciences more generally, and is without question one of the most exciting fields in the study of language and mind. The authors of this book report critically on lines of research in different disciplines, revealing the connections between them and highlighting current problems and opportunities. The force and justification of compositionality have long been contentious. First proposed by Frege as the notion that the meaning of an expression is generally determined by the meaning and syntax of its components, it has since been deployed as a constraint on the relation between theories of syntax and semantics, as a means of analysis, and more recently as underlying the structures of representational systems, such as computer programs and neural architectures. The Oxford Handbook of Compositionality explores these and many other dimensions of this challenging field. It will appeal to researchers and advanced students in linguistics and philosophy and to everyone concerned with the study of language and cognition including those working in neuroscience, computational science, and bio-informatics. "The editors should be commended for also having the vision to create a forward-looking volume that highlights both current debates in the field as well as speculative theoretical questions that will likely shape and direct future research endeavors in the years to come. The editors did an excellent job of bringing together academics with various, diverse specializations to contribute to a volume with such a broad scope of coverage...this volume and its contents will undoubtedly have a high impact in various fields of language science for years to come."--Linguist ListIntroduction ; PART I: HISTORY AND OVERVIEW ; 1. Compositionality: Its Historic Context ; 2. Compositionality in Montague Grammar ; 3. The Case for Compositionality ; 4. Compositionality Problems and How to Solve Them ; PART II: COMPOSITIONALITY IN LANGUAGE ; 5. Sub-Compositionality ; 6. Direct Compositionality ; 7. Holism and Compositionality ; 8. Compositionality, Flexibility, and Context-dependence ; 9. Compositionality in Kaplan Style Semantics ; 10. Semantic Monadicity with Conceptual Polyadicity ; PART III: COMPOSITIONALITY IN FORMAL SEMANTICS ; 11. Formalising the Relationship Between Meaning and Syntax ; 12. Compositionality in Discourse From a Logical Perspective ; 13. Compositionality and the Context Principle ; PART IV: LEXICAL DECOMPOSITION ; 14. Lexical Decomposition in Grammar ; 15. Syntax in the Atom ; 16. Lexical Decomposition in Modern Syntactic Theory ; 17. Co-compositionality ; PART V: THE COMPOSITIONALITY OF MIND ; 18. Can Prototype Representations Support Composition and Decomposition? ; 19. Typicality and Compositionality: The Logic of Combining Vague Concepts ; 20. Emergency!!! Challenges to a Compositional Understanding of Noun-noun Combinations ; 21. Simple Heuristics for Concept Combination ; 22. Regaining Composure: A Defense of Prototype Compositionality ; PART VI: EVOLUTIONARY AND COMMUNICATIVE SUCCESS OF COMPOSITIONAL STRUCTURES ; 23. Prototypes and their Composition from an Evolutionary Point of View ; 24. Compositionality and Linguistic Evolution ; 25. Compositionality and Holophrasis: From Action and Perception Through Protolanguage to Language ; 26. Communication and the Complexity of Semantics ; PART VII: NEURAL MODELS FO COMPOSITIONAL REPRESENTATION ; 27. Connectionism, Dynamical Cognition, and Non-Classical Compositional Representation ; 28. The Dual-Mechanism Debate ; 29. Compositionality and Biologically Plausible Models ; 30. Neural Assemblies, the Binding Problem, and Neural Synchrony ; 31. Non-symbolic Compositional Representation and Its neuronal Foundation: Towards an Emulative Semantics ; 32. The Processing Consequences of Compositionality ; Appendix ; References ; Index