semicompositional

Semicompositional refers to a property of certain mathematical objects or structures where they are formed by combining fully compositional parts. A compositional object is one whose behavior or properties can be understood solely by examining the behavior and properties of its constituent parts and how they are combined. In a semicompositional context, this understanding is only partial. Some aspects of the object's behavior might be predictable from its components, while other aspects emerge from interactions or relationships between the components that are not fully captured by the properties of the individual parts in isolation.

This concept is often encountered in fields like computer science and artificial intelligence, particularly in the design of systems. For instance, a complex software system might be considered semicompositional if individual modules are well-defined and their interfaces are clear, allowing for some degree of modular development and understanding. However, the overall performance or emergent behaviors of the entire system might depend on intricate interactions between these modules that are difficult to predict simply by analyzing each module independently. Similarly, in linguistics, a semicompositional phrase might have a meaning that is largely derived from its constituent words, but with some idiomatic or metaphorical extensions that go beyond a literal sum. The degree to which a structure is semicompositional can vary, indicating a spectrum between fully compositional and entirely non-compositional behavior.