Word Meaning and Commonsense Metaphysics

In this paper, we outline a model of semantics that integrates aspects of discourse-sensitive logics with the compositional mechanisms available from lexically-driven semantic interpretation. Specifically, we concentrate on developing a composition logic required to properly model complex types within the Generative Lexicon (henceforth GL), for which we employ SDRT principles. As we are presently interested in the composition of information to construct logical forms, we will build on one standard way of arriving at such representations, the lambda calculus, in which functional types are exploited. We outline a new type calculus that captures one of the fundamental ideas of GL: providing a set of techniques governing type shifting possibilities for various lexical items so as to allow for the combination of lexical items in cases where there is an apparent type mismatch. These techniques themselves should follow from the structure of the lexicon and its underlying logic.