IS COMPOSITIONALITY COMPATIBLE WITH HOLISM

This paper deals with three prima facie problems for the compatibility of the principle of semantic compositionality with semantic holism. T he first problem concerns the order and mode of determination of the m eaning of complex expressions. The second concerns the individuation o f meanings, and, as a consequence, the possibility of communication. T he third problem concerns the role of compositionality in explaining t he understanding of new sentences, and, in conjunction with that, the possibility of language learning. It is argued that each has an accept able solution.