Introduction

Abstract

This volume collects some of the most recent papers addressing models of linguistic composition from the perspective of Generative Lexicon Theory. Generative Lexicon (henceforth GL) developed out of a goal to provide a compositional semantics for the contextual modulations in meaning that emerge in real linguistic usage. Since it was first proposed, GL has developed to account for a broad range of phenomena involving argument alternation, polysemy, type coercion, as well as discourse phenomena and metaphor. Many of the observations from GL regarding the importance of non-verbal meaning towards determining the semantic shifts and alternations in sentence composition have been adopted by other grammatical frameworks and researchers (refs). Indeed, the field has embraced many of the observations, concepts and mechanisms developed first within GL, such as type coercion, linking to event structure, co-composition, subselection, and qualia structure. It is hoped that the works contained here will contribute to the growing dissemination of these ideas within the broader linguistic community.