Formal semantics was born from an attempt to state explicit rules to predict the truth conditions of natural language sentences. But this goal can be extended beyond language stricto sensu, to a variety of representational systems in nature. This was part of the program of semiotics (e.g. Morris 1938), construed as a general theory of signs; but it never got integrated to the research program of formal semantics. We argue for such an integration, on two general grounds. First, the class of objects that interact with or display uncontroversially linguistic properties is larger than was initially thought. Spoken and especially sign language make use of rich iconic resources which interact with logical structure but cannot be captured without a 'formal semantics with iconicity'. In addition, recent comparisons between sign, speech and gestures strongly suggest that language is multi-modal and that gestures are full citizens of the linguistic world: they trigger familiar inferential types (presuppositions or supplements) when they co-occur with or follow words; and when they fully replace words, their informational content gets divided among familiar slots of the inferential typology, and they even follow a 'gestural grammar' that is in part reminiscent of sign language grammar. Second, independently from these language-internal motivations, the proposed extension leads to a far broader typology of meaning operations in nature, one that includes animal meanings, pictorial meanings, musical meanings, and more. This makes it possible to explore new connections among these domains, for instance between vocal and gestural iconicity, between musical inferences and animal signals, or between visual narratives and music.

中文翻译：

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什么是超级语义？*

形式语义诞生于试图陈述明确的规则以预测自然语言句子的真值条件。但是这个目标可以超越严格意义上的语言，扩展到自然界中的各种表征系统。这是符号学计划的一部分（例如 Morris 1938），被解释为一般的符号理论；但它从未被整合到形式语义学的研究计划中。我们主张这种整合，有两个一般理由。首先，与语言属性交互或显示无争议语言属性的对象类别比最初认为的要大。口语尤其是手语利用了丰富的标志性资源，这些标志性资源与逻辑结构相互作用，但如果没有“具有象形性的正式语义”就无法捕捉。此外，最近比较符号，言语和手势强烈暗示语言是多模态的，手势是语言世界的完整公民：当它们与单词共现或跟随单词时，它们会触发熟悉的推理类型（预设或补充）；当它们完全替换单词时，它们的信息内容会被划分为推理类型学的熟悉位置，并且它们甚至遵循部分让人联想到手语语法的“手势语法”。其次，独立于这些语言内部动机，提议的扩展导致自然界中意义操作的更广泛类型，包括动物意义、图像意义、音乐意义等。这使得探索这些领域之间的新联系成为可能，例如在声音和手势象似性之间，