Andrea C. Schalley Knihy

Current progress in linguistic theorizing increasingly relies on cross-linguistic and cross-modal investigations. Comparing languages depends on concepts that can be similarly coded across all languages, forming part of every language user's ontology—the interconnected conceptualizations that help individuals navigate the world. This volume aims to advance linguistics by examining how ontological structures are reflected in both intra- and cross-linguistic regularities, a focus that defines the research program of ontology-based linguistics, or ontolinguistics. Recent developments in language theory emphasize external explanatory adequacy, linking language to various phenomena. The research program presented here introduces a novel perspective by integrating insights from linguistics, neuroscience, philosophy, and artificial intelligence. This interdisciplinary approach aims to explore the influence of ontological structures on linguistic regularities, positioning ontolinguistics as a promising branch of cognitive science. By documenting the initial stages of this exploration, the volume seeks to inspire future interdisciplinary research, appealing to scholars in linguistics, artificial intelligence, philosophy, and cognitive science.

This book introduces a novel approach to verb semantics through a decompositional representation framework inspired by the Unified Modeling Language (UML), commonly used in object-oriented system design. This framework merges formal precision with conceptual flexibility, enabling the representation of complex verbal meanings through a blend of graphical and linear constructs. It addresses semantic challenges like context-dependency and polysemy, exemplified by a detailed investigation of the polysemy of the German verb "setzen." In addition to formal specifications, the book offers a cognitive interpretation of key modeling elements and discusses issues related to dynamic and static aspects of verbal meanings, granularity, and constraints in verbal semantics. It also makes initial strides toward compositional semantics and proposes a new verb classification based on the graphical framework. Richly illustrated with annotated figures and example diagrams, the book appeals not only to linguists, particularly in semantics, but also to researchers in cognitive science, computational linguistics, and computer science, providing valuable insights from its innovative graphical approach.

Als Gesamtdarstellung des mathematisch-astronomischen Wissens der Maya vermittelt diese Studie einen umfassenden Überblick über die Mathematik und die mit ihr verbundenen Bereiche. Neben Ergebnissen der Forschung, die einander kritisch gegenüber gestellt werden, gleichzeitig aber die Basis dieser Untersuchung darstellen, liefert der Rückgriff auf Inschriften aus der Klassik und die postklassischen Kodizes Einsichten in den abstrakten Zahlbegriff, die Arithmetik, die zyklische Zeitvorstellung und die astrologisch-numerologisch geprägte Astronomie der Maya. Ein Höhepunkt bei der Betrachtung des mathematischen Weltbildes ist in der Aufdeckung des Strebens nach – vornehmlich kalendarisch-astronomischen – Kommensurabilitäten erreicht, denen eine religiös-rituelle Bedeutung zukam.