Chapter 9. Semantics: The Meaning of Language

You do not really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother.

—Albert Einstein U.S. (German-born) physicist (1879–1955)

A language specification is not complete without a description of its intended meaning. You may think that the meaning of a certain mogram is clear, but when you try to express this meaning in some way, you will often find that this is not the case. Therefore, we need to address semantics, or the meaning of software languages.

9.1 Semantics Defined

Semantics is simply another word for meaning, so to define semantics, we have to define meaning. For that, we have to turn to philosophy.

9.1.1 Understanding Is Personal

In 1923 Ogden and ...

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