| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立中正大學 === 哲學研究所 === 99 === Semantics of Programming Languages (SPL), which is a branch of Computer Science, is, as the name has suggested, intended to formalize the semantics of programming languages. This thesis is an introductory article, in which I have systematically discussed some philosophical issues about SPL in the recent literature, and attempted to point out some possible directions for further study. Firstly, I have introduced how contemporary programming languages work, and illustrated the background of the development of SPL, including Chomsky's formal syntax and Montague's formal semantics. Next, I discussed several different theories about the meaning of programming language, and then concluded that the semantics of programming language is a description of the relation between the syntax and the computational models. After looking into some computational models and semantics approaches of programming languages, I have compiled a few philosophical issues of SPL suggested by other philosophers, such as the difference between a programming language and a natural language, the identity of a program, and some alternative views of SPL. In the final chapter of this thesis, I have also briefly discussed a new topic suggested by Turner and Eden: the ontology of computer programs.
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