Perception, types and frames

Abstract

We present a view of perception as the classification of objects and events in terms of types in the sense of TTR, a Type Theory with Records. We argue that such types can be used to give a formal model of concepts and cognitive processing involving concepts. This yields a view that natural language semantics is based on our cognitive perceptual ability. The paper provides an overview of some key ideas in TTR including the important notion of record type. We suggest that record types can be used to model frames in a way that relates to the Düsseldorf notion of frame as well as those of Fillmore and Barsalou.