Abstract
Within the framework of Generative Lexicon theory (GL) we address some problems which subtype coercion poses for the type theory of classical formal semantics exemplified by pre-nominal genitive constructions and the coercion of sortal nouns into relational readings in such constructions. Relational interpretations of sortal nouns in genitive constructions depend on the ontological types of the referents of the two nominal expressions in these constructions and the way in which they interact. We propose to deal with ontological subtypes in the coercion of sortal nouns in terms of higher-order lambda calculus (Λ-calculus), and we demonstrate how Λ-calculus operates on complex function types derived from an ontology of basic entity types.
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Jensen, P.A., Vikner, C. (2011). On Type Coercion in Compositional and Lexical Semantics. In: Kanazawa, M., Kornai, A., Kracht, M., Seki, H. (eds) The Mathematics of Language. MOL 2011. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 6878. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-23211-4_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-23211-4_7
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