QuantML annotations have a compositional semantics, in the sense that the interpretation of an annotation structure is obtained by combining the interpretations of its entity structures and participation link structures, in a manner that is determined by its scope link structures. The specification of the QuantML semantics has the form of translating annotation structures to discourse representation structures (DRSs), as defined in DRT (Kamp & Reyle, 1993).

This semantics combines Generalized Quantifier Theory (GQT, Barwise & Cooper, 1981) with neo-Davidsonian event semantics (Parsons, 1990), viewing natural language quantifiers as properties of sets of participants involved in sets of events. This form of semantics is convenient for combining annotations of quantification with other types of semantic information, using he ISO Semantic Annotation Framework (SemAF, ISO 24617), which also uses DRSs in some of its other parts.
(Other forms of semantics, such as Minimal Recursion Semantics or second-order logic could equally well be used.)

• Overview
• Semantic primitives
• Entity structure semantics
• Link structure semantics
• Clause annotation semantics