Lexical representation based on a universal semantic metalanguage

Abstract

This paper presents a new model for lexical representation within the framework of Role and Reference Grammar. After revising the major challenges in lexical representation for linguistic theory, we move on to discuss a new proposal based on a universal metalanguage. We claim that the metalanguage should consist of a number of primes and a set of intervals (a mathematical notion), which will allow us to combine each of the primes to produce other non-atomic predicates. Furthermore, the new formalism is computationally interpreted in terms of two ontologies: the predicate and the object ontology. We discuss each of the modules and the way the two work together.