On Semantic Underspecification

Abstract

Underspecification has become fashionable in computational semantics.In this chapter, I will try to give an idea of what semantic underspecificationis, what it has been good for, and what the perspective for futureapplication are. I will start with the inspection of specific phenomenaand techniques which are usually associated with the notion of underspecification(in Section 1 and 2, respectively). In Sect. 3, I will try to indicatethe main motivations for using underspecification techniques. Then,I will point out one important use of the concept in some detail,i.e., direct reasoning with incomplete semantic information, discussingfirst the appropriate truth-conditional basis (Sect. 4), and secondperspectives on efficient reasonig systems (Sect. 5). I will concludewith some remarks about the general status of the semantic underspecificationconcept, in Sect. 6.