Abstract
The history of modern semantics is characterised by two research tradi- tions which are based on radically dierent views concerning both con- ceptual motivation and the purpose of semantic research. Realistic semantics conceives of semantics as characterising the rela- tionsship between linguistic expressions and reality. In most cases this re- lationship is explicated by means of modeltheoretic concepts. The follow- ing quote from one of the founding fathers of realistic semantics clearly rejects a mentalist stance. I distinguish two topics: first, the description of possible languages or grammars as abstract semantic systems whereby symbols are associated with aspects of the world; and second, the description of the psychological and sociological facts whereby a particular one of these abstract semantic systems is the one used by a person or a population. Only confusion comes of mixing these two topics. Lewis (1972), p 170
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