Sentences and Systems

This paper defends two opposite theses. First, the centrality of the principle of compositionality has been asserted, as without the bottom-up processes of compositionality, we could not utter new sentences and hope to be understood. On the other hand, radical versions of the principle of compositionality cannot be accepted, and some aspects of natural language can be understood only if the context determines the meanings of the elements in a typically top-down process.