this paper, I will discuss four major topics relating to current research in lexical semantics: methodology, descriptive coverage, adequacy of the representation, and the computational usefulness of representations. In addressing these issues, I will discuss what I think are some of the central problems facing the lexical semantics community, and suggest ways of best approaching these issues. Then, I will provide a method for the decomposition of lexical categories and outline a theory of lexical semantics embodying a notion of cocompositionality and type coercion, as well as several levels of semantic description, where the semantic load is spread more evenly throughout the lexicon. I argue that lexical decomposition is possible if it is performed generatively. Rather than assuming a fixed set of primitives, I will assume a fixed number of generative devices that can be seen as constructing semantic expressions. I develop a theory of Qualia Structure, a representation language for lexical items, which renders much lexical ambiguity in the lexicon unnecessary, while still explaining the systematic polysemy that words carry. Finally, I discuss how individual lexical structures can be integrated into the larger lexical knowledge base through a theory of lexical inheritance. This provides us with the necessary principles of global organization for the lexicon, enabling us to fully integrate our natural language lexicon into a conceptual whole

This book introduces ontological semantics, a comprehensive approach to the treatment of text meaning by computer. Ontological semantics is an integrated complex of theories, methodologies, descriptions and implementations. In ontological semantics, a theory is viewed as a set of statements determining the format of descriptions of the phenomena with which the theory deals. A theory is associated with a methodology used to obtain the descriptions. Implementations are computer systems that use the descriptions to solve specific problems in text processing. Implementations of ontological semantics are combined with other processing systems to produce applications, such as information extraction or machine translation. The theory of ontological semantics is built as a society of microtheories covering such diverse ground as specific language phenomena, world knowledge organization, processing heuristics and issues relating to knowledge representation and implementation system architecture. The theory briefly sketched above is a top-level microtheory, the ontological semantics theory per se. Descriptions in ontological semantics include text meaning representations, lexical entries, ontological concepts and instances as well as procedures for manipulating texts and their meanings. Methodologies in ontological semantics are sets of techniques and instructions for acquiring and

In this paper we investigate how discourse structure affects the meanings of words, and how the meanings of words affect discourse structure. We integrate three ingredients: a theory of discourse structure called sdrt, which represents discourse in terms of rhetorical relations that glue together the propositions introduced by the text segments; an accompanying theory of discourse attachment called dice, which computes which rhetorical relations hold between the constituents, on the basis of the reader's background information; and a formal language for specifying the lexical knowledge---both syntactic and semantic---called the lkb. Through this integration, we can model the information flow from words to discourse, and discourse to words. From words to discourse, we show how the lkb permits the rules for computing rhetorical relations in dice to be generalised and simplified, so that a single law applies to several semantically related lexical items. From discourse to words, we encode...

This paper addresses ways in which we envisage to reduce the fine-grainedness of WordNet and express in a more systematic way the relations between its numerous sense distinctions. In the EuroWordNet project, we have distinguished various automatic methods for grouping senses into more coarse-grained sense groups. These resulting clusters reflect aspects of lexical organization, displaying a variety of semantic regularities or generalizations. In this way, the compatibility of the language-specific wordnets in the EuroWordNet multilingual knowledge base is increased. 1.

The interpretation of coercion construc- tions (to begin a book) has been recently considered as resulting from the operation of type changing. For instance, a phrase of type o (object) is coerced to a phrase of type e (event) under the influence of the predi- cate. We show that this procedure encounters empirical difficulties. Focussing on the begin/commencer case, we show that the coercion interpretation results both from general semantic processes and properties of the predicate, and we argue that it is best represented at the lexical level. The solution is formulated in the HPSG formalism, where the lexical description of heads includes a specification of the argument and articulates syntax and semantics. We propose that the properties attached to the complement remain the same as they are oustside the construction, but that the semantics of the predicate is enriched to include an abstract predicate of which the complement is an argument.

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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This paper describes the multilingual design of the EuroWordNet database. The EuroWordNet database stores wordnets as autonomous language-specific structures that are interconnected via an Inter-Lingual-Index (ILI). In this paper, we discuss the possibilities to create mappings from each wordnet to the central ILI and how the ILI itself can be adapted to provide more overlap across the wordnets. We will argue that the ILI can be condensed to a more universal index of meaning, while the wordnets can still encode any fine-grained lexicalizations for each language.

The paper defends the notion that semantic tagghg should be viewed as more than disambiguation between senses. Instead, semantic tagging should be a first step in the interpretation process by assigning each lexical item a representation of all of its systematically related senses, from which fuxther semantic processing steps can derive discourse dependent interpretations.

The modern computational lexical semantics reached a point in its development when it has become necessary to define the premises and goals of each of its several trends. This paper proposes ten choices in terms of which these premises and goals can be discussed. It is argued that the central questions include the use of lexical rules for generating word senses; the role of syntax, pragmatics, and formal semantics in the specification of lexical meaning; the use of a world model, or ontology, as the organizing principle for lexical-semantic descriptions; the use of rules with limited scope; the relation between static and dynamic resources; the commitment to descriptive coverage; the trade-off between generalization and idiosyncracy; and, finally, the adherence to the "supply-side" (method-oriented) or "demand-side" (task-oriented) ideology of research. The discussion is inspired by, but not limited to, the comparison between the generative lexicon approach and the ontologi...