Fregean Compositionality

Fregean compositionality is the principle that the meaning of a complex expression—like a sentence—derives directly from the meanings of its parts (words or phrases) and how they are combined. In other words, understanding a whole depends on understanding its components and their arrangement. For example, in the sentence “The cat is black,” the overall meaning comes from the meanings of “the,” “cat,” “is,” and “black,” plus how they’re structured. This concept helps explain how language conveys complex ideas systematically and consistently.