Abstract:

This paper outlines an ontology-based formal approach to the interpretation of NP's.

The starting point of the semantic theory developed in our paper is an ontology conceived of as a taxonomic description of general abstract as well as more domain-specific concepts.The semantics of an individual lexical item is given in the lexicon as a pointer to the pertinent node in the ontology.

Ontological nodes are not necessarily lexicalized, and, moreover, the ontology is generative in the sense that new nodes may be generated indefinitely reflecting ever more specialized complex concepts.

The paper focusses on NP's containing PP's and the ontological compositionality principles for shaping the complex concept expressed by such phrases.