Common Contracts

The issue of the syntax-semantics interface

The Issue of the Syntax-Semantics Interface • October 23rd, 2013

• Contract Type
  The Issue of the Syntax-Semantics Interface
• Filed
  October 23rd, 2013

In the most straightforward cases syntactic agreement (sometimes called ‘agreement ad formam’, ‘formal agreement’ or ‘grammatical agreement’) is agreement consistent with the form of the controller (the committee has decided). Semantic agreement (or ‘agreement ad sensum’, ‘notional agreement’, ‘logical agreement’ or ‘synesis’) is agreement consistent with its meaning (the committee have decided). The distinction between syntactic and semantic agreement links to Steele’s definition… in that the covariance involves a ‘semantic or formal property’ of the controller.