Komposition und Kompositionalität

This book systematically applies the so-called principle of compositionality to substantive composition and investigates whether this semantic principle can be judged a sufficient basis for the understanding of unknown terms. The central question concerns how far the meaning of a substantive composite with two nominal elements can be ‘calculated’ from the meaning of its constituents. Using various empirical studies, the author shows that the principle of compositionality must be reformulated.