Compositional meaning and scope

Composition

The meaning of a complex expression depends partly on the meanings of its pieces and partly on how grammar combines them. A modifier can restrict a set of possible referents; a quantifier can state how many satisfy a predicate. For a historical sentence, do not begin with a smooth English paraphrase. Draw plausible phrase groupings and ask what each grouping would mean.

Compositionality is a principle of analysis, not a claim that every expression is predictable from its visible parts. Idioms, technical titles and fixed formulas can have conventional meanings. Oracc documents the formal conventions of Neo-Assyrian royal inscriptions; repeated attested uses, not the wording of one translation, must establish whether an expression functions as a conventional title.

Scope

Scope is the part of an expression over which an operator such as negation, a quantifier or a modal has semantic effect. Negation with a universal quantifier can leave open whether the claim excludes every member of a set or only rejects a claim about all members. Resolve a particular text by locating its operators, testing its grammar and comparing parallel contexts. Ancient writing may leave the interpretation unresolved.

Modality makes related distinctions. WALS separates situational possibility, including ability or permission, from epistemic possibility, which concerns a speaker’s assessment of a proposition. An English auxiliary in a translation may conceal which reading the source construction supports. The same form can be multifunctional, so test its arguments and context rather than assigning one dictionary label.

Practice

For an attested clause with a negative or modal expression, bracket two possible scopes and paraphrase each. Identify the exact morpheme or word that bears the operator and the part of the clause it plausibly affects. If the edition or grammar does not decide, preserve both readings.