Routledge dictionary of language and linguistics - Developers

programming language
A-Z 587
References
interpreting
The practice of (oral) translation of one language into another. Two types of interpreting
are distinguished: (a) simultaneous interpreting, in which smaller semantic units are
translated in synchrony with the actual production of the foreign language text; and (b)
consecutive interpreting in which a large portion of closed text is translated. ( also
translation)
interpretive semantics
In the framework of generative grammar, position held by N.Chomsky, J.J.Katz, and
others according to which syntax is considered an autonomous generative component,
while the semantic component has a purely interpretive character in that it interprets the
syntactically motivated abstract deep structures through semantic rules, i.e. gives them
one or more readings. The aim of interpretive semantics is to describe the competence of
the ideal speaker/hearer who ‘can semantically interpret any sentence…under any of its
grammatical derivations. He can determine the number and content of the readings of a
sentence, tell whether or not a sentence is semantically anomalous, and decide which
sentences…are paraphrases of each other’ (Katz and Fodor 1963:182). The semantic
representation of interpretive semantics rests initially and above all upon three now
widely debated hypotheses: (a) the meaning of linguistic expressions can be completely
described on the basis of a limited inventory of semantic features of a largely universal
nature; (b) the syntactically motivated deep structure supplies all the necessary semanticsyntactic
information for the semantic interpretation; and (c) transformations between
deep and surface structures are semantically neutral. The semantic theory of interpretive
semantics consists of two components, the lexicon 3 and projection rules. The lexicon
supplies both syntactic and semantic information. The semantic information is composed
of (a) systematic semantic relationships between individual lexemes and the rest of the
vocabulary of the language ( semantic feature); (b) the idiosyncratic, non-systematic
features ( distinguisher); and (c) selectional features. The lexicon entries are placed
in the syntactic deep structure, with polysemic lexemes ( polysemy) having a
corresponding number of readings. These potential readings are selected via projection
rules on the basis of conditions of grammaticality, and the individual lexical elements are
summarized with consideration of their grammatical relations (as depicted in their tree) to
the whole meaning of the sentence, that is, they are ‘amalgamated’ ( amalgamation).