I would like to pose a set of fundamental questions regarding the constraints we can place on the structure of our concepts, particularly as revealed through language. I will outline a methodology for the construction of ontological types based on the dual concerns of capturing linguistic generalizations and satisfying metaphysical considerations. I discuss what “kinds of things ” there are, as reflected in the models of semantics we adopt for our linguistic theories. I argue that the flat and relatively homogeneous typing models coming out of classic Montague Grammar are grossly inadequate to the task of modelling and describing language and its meaning. I outline aspects of a semantic theory (Generative Lexicon) employing a ranking of types. I distinguish first between natural (simple) types and functional types, and then motivate the use of complex types (dot objects) to model objects with multiple and interdependent denotations. This approach will be

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Our long-term goal is to contribute to the integration of formal and lexical semantics. Our more immediate theoretical starting point is the idea of text as theory, within a model-theoretic semantic framework. We describe a set of empirical problems in the domain of genitive modifiers which offer a challenge to theories of the integration of lexical, compositional, and contextual information. After sketching a solution, we raise the issue of metonymy in the interpretation of genitives, and examine the role of sortal information in the specification of underspecified meanings and in processes of typeshifting and sort-shifting, including metonymy.

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This paper presents a diagnostic for identifying distributive constructions and shows that it applies to pseudopartitives and for-adverbials. On this basis, a unified account is proposed for the parallels between the constructions involved. This account explains why for-adverbials reject telic predicates (*run to the store for five hours), why pseudopartitives reject count nouns (*five pounds of book), and why both reject certain measure functions like temperature and speed (*30℃ of water, *drive for 5 mph). These restrictions all follow from a general constraint on distributive constructions. Related concepts such as the D operator (Link, 1987), the subinterval property (Bennett and Partee, 1972), and divisive reference (Cheng, 1973) can be understood as formalizing special cases of this constraint. 1

Contact relation algebras (CRAs), introduced in Düntsch et al. (1999), arise from the study of “part–of ” and “contact ” relations rooted in mereology and have applications, for example, in qualitative spatial reasoning. We give an overview of the origins of CRAs and numerous examples. 1

The theory of the Theta System (Reinhart 2000, 2002) gives a compositional account of verbal argument structure and argument structure alternations. Although it makes concrete predictions with respect to argument projection and syntax, Reinhart has not provided a definition of the semantics, and semantic operations, associated with the system’s primitive elements and operators. In this paper I provide a

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A type theory for typing information, meta-typing information and ontological information in discourse is proposed by extending Lambek calculus with higher-order dependent type theory. Furthermore, for the type theory, a discovery method of type names is also proposed using unification of type variables. The type theory can be a theoretical foundation of information extraction and learning concept's name from discourse.