Semanticists often assume an ontology for natural language that includes not only ordinary objects, but also events, and other sorts of entities. We link this ontology to how speakers represent static and dynamic entities. Specifically, we test how speakers determine whether an entity counts as “atomic” by using count vs. mass (e.g., some gleebs, some gleeb) and distributive vs. non-distributive descriptions (e.g., gleeb every second or so, gleeb around a little). We then seek evidence for atomic representation in a non-linguistic task. Ultimately we suggest that natural language ontology reveals properties of language-independent conceptualization.

中文翻译：

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对象和事件有多相似？

语义学家经常假设自然语言的本体论不仅包括普通对象，而且还包括事件和其他种类的实体。我们将此本体与说话者如何表示静态和动态实体联系起来。具体来说，我们测试说话者如何通过使用数量与质量（例如一些小脑，一些小脑）和分布式与非分布式描述（例如每秒左右的小脑，左右一个小脑）来确定一个实体是否算作“原子”。小）。然后，我们寻求非语言任务中原子表示的证据。最终，我们建议自然语言本体揭示了独立​​于语言的概念化的属性。