This paper describes a semantics of typed lambda calculi based on relations. The main mathematical tool is a category-theoretic method of sconing, also called glueing or Freyd covers. Its correspondence to logical relations is also examined. 1 Introduction Many modern programming languages feature rather sophisticated typing mechanisms. In particular, languages such as ML include polymorphic data types, which allow considerable programming flexibility. Several notions of polymorphism were introduced into computer science by Strachey [Str67], among them the important notion of parametric polymorphism. Strachey's intuitive definition is that a polymorphic function is parametric if it has a uniformly given algorithm in all types, that is, if the function's behavior is independent of the type at which the function is instantiated. Reynolds [Rey83] proposed a mathematical definition of parametric polymorphic functions by means of invariance with respect to certain relations induced by typ...

. Lambda definability is characterized in categorical models of simply typed lambda calculus with type variables. A category-theoretic framework known as glueing or sconing is used to extend the Jung-Tiuryn characterization of lambda definability [JuT93], first to ccc models, and then to categorical models of the calculus with type variables. Logical relations are now a well-established tool for studying the semantics of various typed lambda calculi. The main lines of research are focused in two areas, the first of which strives for an understanding of Strachey's notion of parametric polymorphism. The main idea is that a parametricly polymorphic function acts independently from the types to which its type variables are instantiated, and that this uniformity may be captured by imposing a relational structure on the types [OHT93, MSd93, MaR91, Wad89, Rey83, Str67]. The other line of research concerns lambda definability and the full abstraction problem for various models of languag...