ABSTRACT

The syntactic features of this sublanguage, consisting largely of complex noun phrases, are described. A semantic model used in semantic interpretation of medical diagnostic statements is presented. The chapter focuses on the role of syntax in the process of semantic interpretation in this sublanguage. A higher order predicate logic is used as the most perspicuous control structure for integrating the syntactic and semantic information in this process.

Although some syntactic forms such as the AN form do predict a predicative relationship between syntactic constitutents, the exact nature of this relationship is underdetermined by syntax (e.g., myocardial infarction, infarcted myocardium). A semantic model describing the predicative relationships among pragmatically based word and phrase clases is thus essential for semantic interpretation.

Syntactic information in this sublanguage is found to provide unreliable structure on which to perform componential semantic analysis, but it is used as a heuristic to restrict search in the semantic model.