Geometrical Semantics for Spatial Prepositions

Crangle, Colleen E.; Suppes, Patrick

doi:10.1111/j.1475-4975.1989.tb00200.x

Cited by 10 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Furthermore, the idea that the lexical entries of spatial prepositions consist solely of geometric concepts has been challenged (Garrod & Sanford 1989;Talmy 1988;Coventry 1992Coventry , 1993Coventry & Ludwig 1991). Not only does the empirical evidence suggest that purely geometric concepts cannot determine usage (shortly to be reviewed), but the geometric concepts themselves are rather complex and varied (Crangle & Suppes 1989;Suppes 1991). Coventry (1992Coventry ( , 1993 points out that, if a variety of geometries underlie spatial language as Suppes and colleagues maintain, one then needs to give an account of how the relevant geometry is selected in context.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial Prepositions, Object-Specific Function, and Task Requirements

1994

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Two separate issues were looked at in this experimental study of the semantics of spatial prepositions. In the context of work to specify general factors of a functional geometry mediating the use of spatial prepositions (Garrod & Sanford 1989; Coventry 1992, 1993), object-specific effects were investigated. Subjects described video scenes of various objects and their responses of in, on, over, and beside were monitored. The independent variables involved the manipulation of functionality specific to various types of objects. It was concluded that knowledge about how particular objects interact with each other contributes to the representation of functional relations which determine preposition usage. Therefore a specification of functional geometries cannot proceed without a prior formulation of our knowledge about the physical and social worlds. Additionally two different experimental measures of prepositional covariance with the scenes were used: Lickert-scale judgements and sentence completions. Responses from two separate groups were compared. The findings indicated some agreement between the two measures, but also some differences in patterns of response. It is suggested that the measures are tapping different processes, and that a variety of methods need to be used to abstract to lexical representation. * p < 0.05 one-tailed. ** p < 0.01.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial Prepositions, Object-Specific Function, and Task Requirements

1994

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“…One reason for this is that there is a gap between the intuitive ways in which a mathematical concept such as ‘topology’ are used (also in Piaget & Inhelder, and Talmy, ) and serious mathematical treatments. Crangle and Suppes () is one of the few papers that discuss the variety of prepositions from the perspective of different geometries.…”

Section: Formal Thesis: Geometric Models Of Spatial Meaningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial semantics: Modeling the meaning of prepositions

Zwarts

2017

Language and Linguist. Compass

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Reference to space, especially with prepositions, plays a central role in natural language and is receiving more and more attention over the past decades. One line of research uses formal semantic modeling, using topological and other geometrical concepts such as regions, vectors, and paths. Another line of research has drawn attention to the role of function, force‐dynamics, polysemy, prototypes, and crosslinguistic variation in this domain. This paper gives an overview of both lines of research and argues that a synthesis is possible, based on a proper division of labor between semantics and pragmatics, richer ontologies, and a perspective on categorization that uses conceptual spaces and semantic maps.

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“…• Spatial expressions are used to instruct robots in human-robot interaction. For instance, "get the knife near the plate", "go to the statue near the market" (Crangle & Suppes, 1989;Kuipers, 2000).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nearness as context-dependent expression: an integrative review of modeling, measurement and contextual properties

Novel

Grütter

Boley

et al. 2020

Spatial Cognition & Computation

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Nearness expressions such as "near" are context-dependent spatial relations and are subject to the context variability effect. Depending on the provided context, "near" has a different semantic extension. We perform a literature review to identify the effect of context on "near". To integrate the insights from different disciplines, we apply Turney's contextualisation framework which distinguishes between two types of features: primary and contextual. Primary features are the qualitative and quantitative distance measures and contextual features are the context factors used 1

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Geometrical Semantics for Spatial Prepositions

Abstract:

Cited by 10 publications

References 11 publications

Spatial Prepositions, Object-Specific Function, and Task Requirements

Spatial Prepositions, Object-Specific Function, and Task Requirements

Spatial semantics: Modeling the meaning of prepositions

Nearness as context-dependent expression: an integrative review of modeling, measurement and contextual properties

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