Methods, apparatus, and computer program products are described for automatic speech recognition (`ASR`) that include accepting by the multimodal application speech input and visual input for selecting or deselecting items in a selection list, the speech input enabled by a speech recognition grammar; providing, from the multimodal application to the grammar interpreter, the speech input and the speech recognition grammar; receiving, by the multimodal application from the grammar interpreter, interpretation results including matched words from the grammar that correspond to items in the selection list and a semantic interpretation token that specifies whether to select or deselect items in the selection list; and determining, by the multimodal application in dependence upon the value of the semantic interpretation token, whether to select or deselect items in the selection list that correspond to the matched words.