Description

Formal ontology is an interdisciplinary area of research (involving
logicians, philosophers and linguists as well as computer, cognitive, and
information scientists) that focuses on the construction of logical
theories for knowledge representation, reasoning and information sharing.
Roughly, an ontology is an axiomatic theory whose interpretation commits
explicitly to a specific domain  of discourse (legitimate models with
different domain are ignored). Its task is to convey in a reliable way the
adopted world view to which communicative exchanges refer. Thus, formal
ontology helps semanticists in defining and choosing representations of
domains like space, time and matter, crucial to express the references of
spatial expressions, mass nouns, tense and aspect.

Lectures:
1) Ontology: definition, interdisciplinary aspects, examples
2) Ontology classification and ontology in formal linguistics
3) Formal ontology and the space of foundational choices
4) Crucial notions: space, time, parthood, constitution, dependence… 
5) The DOLCE ontology and applications in linguistic projects