qualia structure  , singular quale 

A theory of LEXICAL SEMANTICS that represents the semantic content of lexical items with a division into different types (qualia). For example, for a NOUN the types are: formal (the item’s place in a taxonomy), constitutive (the relation between an item and its parts), telic (what uses it typically has), and agentive (how the item has come into being and exists). The aim is to explain how different senses of a word can be evoked in different contexts. Thus a hospital can be both an institution and a building, or a door both an aperture and a physical object.