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Recursion plays a crucial role not only in syntax, but also in [[natural language semantics]]. The word ''and'', for example, can be construed as a function that can apply to sentence meanings to create new sentences, and likewise for noun phrase meanings, verb phrase meanings, and others. It can also apply to intransitive verbs, transitive verbs, or ditransitive verbs. In order to provide a single denotation for it that is suitably flexible, ''and'' is typically defined so that it can take any of these different types of meanings as arguments. This can be done by defining it for a simple case in which it combines sentences, and then defining the other cases recursively in terms of the simple one.<ref>Barbara Partee and Mats Rooth. 1983. In Rainer Bäuerle et al., ''Meaning, Use, and Interpretation of Language''. Reprinted in Paul Portner and Barbara Partee, eds. 2002. ''Formal Semantics: The Essential Readings''. Blackwell.</ref>
A [[recursive grammar]] is a [[formal grammar]] that contains recursive [[production (computer science)|production rules]].<ref name="ns02">{{citation
| last1 = Nederhof | first1 = Mark-Jan
| last2 = Satta | first2 = Giorgio
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