Semantic primitives and compositionality: An Annual Review of Information Science and Technology ( ARIST ) paper
这篇综述探讨了语义基元（基本原子概念）和组合性原则（复杂表达式由简单成分构成）在知识组织系统中的作用，以及它们在自动语言处理、人工智能等领域的应用，并讨论了相关争议。
Abstract The term semantic primitives refers to a set of basic, atomic concepts from which all other (compound) concepts are constructed. It presupposes the principle of compositionality —the idea that complex items or expressions can be formed by combining simpler constituents. Both notions are of particular relevance to knowledge organization (KO), where concepts are understood to be the primary objects of organization in knowledge organization systems (KOS). Semantic primitives, therefore, may be viewed as candidates for foundational units in such systems. Moreover, these concepts play important roles in fields such as automatic language processing, lexicography, word sense disambiguation, and artificial intelligence. In KO, they relate to methods such as semantic factoring and facet analysis, while in linguistics they parallel componential analysis. Nevertheless, semantic primitives and compositionality remain controversial, with strong arguments both for and against their very existence. The philosophical assumptions underlying these debates have significant implications for information science and knowledge organization.