Comment by vidarh
9 hours ago
> There is no "depends on how you look at it." There's nothing to debate.
None of what you wrote is remotely relevant to what I wrote.
> There's no "magic" because this isn't a thing. You can't transmute syntax into semantics any more than you can transmute the knowledge of Algebra into the sensation of a cool breeze on a hot summer day. This is a category error.
We "transmute" syntax into semantics every time we interpret a given syntax as having semantics.
There is no inherent semantics. Semantics is a function of the meaning we assign to a given syntax.