Abstract

This article provides an introduction to co-compositionality in grammar. Co-compositionality is a semantic property of a linguistic expression in which all constituents contribute functionally to the meaning of the entire expression. The notion of co-compositionality is a characterization of how a system constructs the meaning from component parts. An expression in a language is the set of computations within a specific system that should be characterized as co-compositional for those expressions. The local context is supplying additional information to the meaning of the predicate that is not inherently part of the verb's meaning—the completive aspect which inheres in the resultative constructions. Co-compositionality is the introduction of new information to an expression by the argument, beyond what it contributes as an argument to the function within the phrase.