INTRODUCTION

Before turning to some selected issues in type theory, type-shifting and the semantics of noun phrases, which form the main topic of this chapter, I will briefly mention some other, very exciting topics of current research in formal semantics that are relevant to the theme of this book, but which do not receive the attention they deserve in what follows.

One is the centrality of context dependence, context change, and a more dynamic view of the basic semantic values. This view of meanings, in terms of functions from contexts to contexts, is important both for the way it helps us make better sense of such things as temporal anaphora, and also for the way it solves some of the crucial foundational questions about presuppositions and the principles governing presupposition projection. The work of Irene Heim [86] is central in this area.

Another crucial area that will not be covered is the recently emerging emphasis on the algebraic structure of certain model-theoretic domains, such as entities, events or eventualities. As well as the work of Godehard Link [137] and Jan-Tore Lønning [140] in this area, referred to by Fenstad [54], I would also mention the attempt by Emmon Bach [6] to generalize the issue into questions about natural language metaphysics. An example of such a question is whether languages that grammaticize various semantic distinctions (such as mass versus count nouns) differently have different ontologies, or whether Link's use of Boolean algebras, which may be either atomic or not necessarily atomic, provides a framework in which to differentiate those structures that are shared from additional ones that only some languages express through grammar.