Ontology As Structured by the Interfaces with Semantics

Where ontology meets grammar and cognition.

An umbrella organization for research about and around formal semantic ontology

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.

Ontology as the backbone of grammatical systems

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.

Ontology as an interdisciplinary hinge

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.

A network of networks

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.

Who we are

Find fellow researchers.

The questions we ask

Read about our purpose.

What we believe

Read our credo.

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News

The latest ontology news from the world of formal semantics and its interfaces.

Hippocampus distinguishes urgent from future goals

June 26, 2024
Looking at how goals are processed in the hippocampus

A beautiful visualization of gender in language

March 4, 2024
How do languages mark gender? How do people feel about it?

The future of OASIS

February 28, 2024
Big plans for the website are underway!