Ontology As Structured by the Interfaces with Semantics

OASIS is an umbrella organization for questions about:

...abilities, agents, animacy, aspects, attitudes, causation, degrees, dispositions, entities, events, facts, forces, habits, identity, intensions, intentions, kinds, numbers, obligations, persons, plurality, polarity, possession, possibilities, predication, properties, propositions, questions, scales, sentience, situations, states, stuff, times, tropes, worlds...

Answers to these questions arise from the interfaces with semantics: grammar (syntax) and cognition.

Our most basic mental concepts of what is in the world form the backbone of grammatical systems.

Any particular language, through its grammatical system, forces the speaker to express certain distinctions which are in effect answers to ontological questions.

Using linguistic methods—the "x-ray machines" for grammatical systems—we can detect a rich ground truth about the ontological entities that natural language can manipulate.

Ontological entities are a hinge that allows researchers from different frameworks to communicate.

From syntax, through semantics and philosophy, to pragmatics, psychology, neuroscience and computer science, we all rely on ontology.

Where two distinct frameworks each use a notion of "event", for instance, we can easily ask how those notions coincide or differ.

OASIS aims to provide human and digital infrastructure for a network of networks, through OASIS meetings and through the OASIS website.

Ontology researchers and communities are welcome to post publications, news, projects, and events.

Send us a content suggestion, or if you want to interact more closely with OASIS, contact us.