Formalsemantischer

Formalsemantischer is a German adjectival form meaning related to formalsemantik, i.e., formal semantics. It appears in German-language scholarly writing to characterize approaches, theories, analyses, or objects as employing formal methods to study linguistic meaning. Common collocations include formalsemantischer Ansatz, formalsemantische Theorie, and formalsemantische Analyse. The term signals adherence to the tradition of formal semantics, which models meaning through logical representations, truth-conditions, and compositional rules.

Formalsemantik, the field, applies tools from mathematical logic, model theory, and lambda calculus (as in Montague grammar) to represent the semantics of natural language. Core topics include truth conditions, possible-worlds semantics, intensionality, quantification, and the interpretation of verbs, nouns, and determiners. Formal semantics is often contrasted with non-formal approaches such as lexical semantics, cognitive semantics, or pragmatics.

In German, the adjective form changes to formalsemantischer / formalsemantische / formalsemantisches depending on gender, number, and case. The term is less common in English, where "formal semantics" is the standard expression.