Levels of Ontology and Natural Language

Abstract

Two levels of ontology are commonly distinguished in metaphysics: the ontology of ordinary objects, or more generally ordinary ontology, and the ontology of what there really or fundamentally is. This chapter argues that natural language reflects not only the ordinary ontology but also a language-driven ontology, which is involved in the mass-count distinction and part-structure-sensitive semantic selection (as well as perhaps the light ontology of pleonastic entities in the sense of Schiffer). The language-driven ontology does not constitute another level of representation, but is taken to be a (selective) ontology of the real, given a plenitudinous or maximalist conception of reality. The language-driven ontology aligns closely with the functional part of grammar and a commitment to it is mandatory with the use of language. This gives rise to a novel view according to which part of ontology should be considered part of universal grammar on a broadened understanding. The chapter recasts the author’s older theory of situated part structures without situations, in purely ontological terms, making use of a primitive notion of unity.