Editing Semantics (section)

=== Formal semantics ===
{{main|Formal semantics (natural language)}}
Formal semantics uses formal tools from [[logic]] and [[mathematics]] to analyze meaning in natural languages.{{efn|The term ''formal semantics'' is sometimes used in a different sense to refer to compositional semantics or to the study of meaning in the formal languages of systems of logic.<ref>{{multiref | {{harvnb|Bohnemeyer|2021|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=HLJFEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA24 24]}} | {{harvnb|Pollock|2017|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=UIwrDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA172 172]}} }}</ref>}} It aims to develop precise logical formalisms to clarify the relation between expressions and their denotation.<ref name="auto4">{{multiref | {{harvnb|Geeraerts|2010|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=JC8TDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA118 118–119]}} | {{harvnb|Moeschler|2007|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=h3SpC0oBc_AC&pg=PA31 31–33]}} | {{harvnb|Portner|Partee|2008|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ptgUWREtAkMC&pg=PA1 1–2]}} }}</ref> One of its key tasks is to provide frameworks of how language represents the world, for example, using [[Model theory|ontological models]] to show how linguistic expressions map to the entities of that model.<ref name="auto4"/> A common idea is that words refer to individual objects or groups of objects while sentences relate to events and states. Sentences are mapped to a [[truth value]] based on whether their description of the world is in correspondence with its ontological model.<ref>{{harvnb|Moeschler|2007|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=h3SpC0oBc_AC&pg=PA31 31–33]}}</ref>

Formal semantics further examines how to use formal mechanisms to represent linguistic phenomena such as [[Quantifier (linguistics)|quantification]], [[intensionality]], [[noun phrases]], [[plural]]s, mass terms, [[Grammatical tense|tense]], and [[Modality (linguistics)|modality]].<ref>{{harvnb|Portner|Partee|2008|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ptgUWREtAkMC&pg=PA3 3, 8–10, 35, 127, 324]}}</ref> [[Montague semantics]] is an early and influential theory in formal semantics that provides a detailed analysis of how the English language can be represented using mathematical logic. It relies on [[higher-order logic]], [[lambda calculus]], and [[type theory]] to show how meaning is created through the combination of expressions belonging to different syntactic categories.<ref>{{multiref | {{harvnb|Portner|Partee|2008|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ptgUWREtAkMC&pg=PA3 3–4]}} | {{harvnb|Janssen|Zimmermann|2021|loc=Lead Section, § 1. Introduction, § 2.3 Logic and Translation}} }}</ref>

[[Dynamic semantics]] is a subfield of formal semantics that focuses on how information grows over time. According to it, "meaning is context change potential": the meaning of a sentence is not given by the information it contains but by the information change it brings about relative to a context.<ref>{{multiref | {{harvnb|Groenendijk|Stokhof|2009|pp=272–273}} | {{harvnb|Nouwen|Brasoveanu|van Eijck|Visser|2022|loc=Lead Section}} }}</ref>