The design, implementation, and use of grammar forma]isms for natural language have constituted a major branch of coml)utational linguistics throughout its development. By viewing grammar formalisms as just a special ease of computer languages, we can take advantage of the machinery of denotational semantics to provide a precise specification of their meaning. Using Dana Scott's domain theory, we elucidate the nature of the feature systems used in augmented phrase-structure grammar formalisms, in particular those of recent versions of generalized phrase structure grammar, lexical functional grammar and PATRI1, and provide a (lcnotational semantics for a simple grammar formalism. .
