Formal Semantics and Applied Mathematics: An Inferential Account

In this paper, I utilise the growing literature on scientific modelling to investigate the nature of formal semantics from the perspective of the philosophy of science. Specifically, I incorporate the inferential framework proposed by Bueno and Colyvan (Nous 45(2): 345-374, 2011) in the philosophy of applied mathematics to offer an account of how formal semantics explains and models its data. This view produces a picture of formal semantic models as involving an embedded process of inference and representation applying indirectly to linguistic phenomena. The final aim of the paper is directed at proposing a novel account of the syntax-semantics interface while shedding light on empty categories, semantically null forms, underspecified content and compositionality as a whole.