Direct Compositionality on Demand ∗

The problem is that many natural language expression types lead a double life, simultaneously here and there, masquerading as a local lump but somehow interacting directly with distant elements. The two main examples discussed here are bound anaphora, in which an anaphor depends for its value on some distant binder; and quantification, in which some local element takes semantic scope over a properly containing constituent. Such action-at-a-distance confronts theories of the syntax–semantics interface with a dilemma: should we interpret these elements locally, where they enter into the syntactic structure, or globally, where they take semantic effect? Both approaches have staunch defenders. One well-established approach (e.g. Heim and Kratzer 1998) emphasizes the global perspective, relegating the interpretation of anaphors to variable assignment functions, and postponing