Abstract

This chapter focuses on denotational semantics, which is a framework for the formal description of programming language semantics. The main idea of denotational semantics is that each phrase of the language described is given a denotation, which is a mathematical object that represents the contribution of the phrase to the meaning of any complete program in which it occurs. The denotation of each phrase is determined just by the denotations of its subphrases. The chapter discusses the formalism used in denotational semantics: abstract syntax, semantic functions, and semantic domains. It also describes the nature of semantic functions and also describes the properties of compositionality and full abstractness. The chapter illustrates the major standard techniques that are used in denotational descriptions of programming languages, such as environments, stores, and continuations. The chapter explains the relation between these techniques and some fundamental concepts of programming languages.

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