@Elscvier Sequoia S.A., Lausanne- Printed in the Netherlands Abstract Procedural Semantics*

The aim of this paper is to present an outline of a theory of semantics based on the analogy between natural and computer programming languages. A uniji’ed model of the comprehension and production of sentences is drscrib-ed in order to illustrate the central “compile and execute ” metaphor under-lying procedural semantics. The role of general knowledge within the lexicon, and the mechanism mediating selectional restrictions, are re-anall’z-ed in the light of the procedural theory. “Procedural semantics ” is an expression that gained currency first in the dis-cussion of computer programming languages like Fortran and Algol. These artificial languages, which are used to communicate programs of instructions to computers, have both a syntax and a semantics. Their syntax consists of rules for writing well-formed programs that a computer can interpret and execute. Their semantics consists of the procedures that the computer is instructed to execute. If, for example, a programming language permits an instruction like: x and J 3, it might mean that the computer is to add th