all the relationships between components, etc, I made “explicit”
Is there a typo here? “are made explicit” perhaps?
or that there is some set of rules such that following those rules (/modifying the expression according to those rules) is guaranteed to preserve (something like) the expression’s “truth value”?
That’s correct. More generally (since the concept also applies to noun phrases) guaranteed to preserve its “value” whatever type that may be. This “value” is something like what-it-points-at, semantic reference.
Is there a typo here? “are made explicit” perhaps?
That’s correct. More generally (since the concept also applies to noun phrases) guaranteed to preserve its “value” whatever type that may be. This “value” is something like what-it-points-at, semantic reference.