Recursive models, a computational tool for representing the meaning of natural language utterances at a semantic/pragmatic level are described and compared with relevant work. Recursive models are not only a theorical instrument, but an effective tool: they have been used in TOBI (Temporal presuppositions and counterfactuals: an Ontological Based Interpreter), a natural language processing system for modelling temporal presuppositions and counterfactuals, linguistic phenomena situated on the boundary line between semantics and pragmatics and common to many languages.