This book introduces a number of fundamental techniques for computing semantic representations for fragments of natural language and performing inference with the result. Both the underlying theory and their implementation in Prolog are discussed. We believe that the reader who masters these techniques will be in a good position to appreciate (and critically assess) ongoing developments in computational semantics.

To be more specific, this book introduces techniques for tackling the following two questions:

• How can we automate the process of associating semantic representations with expressions of natural language?

• How can we use logical representations of natural language expressions to automate the process of drawing inferences?

In the final chapter we introduce the Curt programs, which harness semantic construction and inference together in a single architecture.