Spatial Language: Cognitive and Computational Perspectives

275 Pages·2002·10.819 MB·

by  Geoffrey Edwards (auth.), Kenny R. Coventry, Patrick Olivier (eds.)

SPATIAL LANGUAGE
SPATIAL LANGUAGE
Cognitive and Computational Perspectives
Edited by
Kenny R. Coventry
Centre for Thinking and Language, Department of Psychology,
University of Plymouth, u.K.
and
Patrick Olivier
Department of Computer Science, University of York, u.K.
Springer-Science+Business Media, B.V.
A c.I.P. Catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN 978-90-481-5910-9 ISBN 978-94-015-9928-3 (eBook)
DOl 10.1007/978-94-015-9928-3
Printed on acid-free paper
All Rights Reserved
© 2002 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
Originally published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 2002.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1s t edition 2002
No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or
utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and
retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright owner.
Table of Contents
Preface VII
Kenny R. Coventry and Patrick Olivier
Contributors IX
1. Reasoning about Shape using the Tangential Axis 1
Transform or the Shape's "Grain"
Geoffrey Edwards
2. A Conceptual Model for Representing Verbal 19
Expressions used in Route Descriptions
Agnes Gryl, Bernard Moulin and Driss Kettani
3. Resolving Ambiguous Descriptions through Visual 43
Information
Ingo Duwe, Klaus Kessler and Hans Strohner
4. An Anthropomorphic Agent for the Use of Spatial 69
Language
Tanja Jdrding and Ipke Wachsmuth
5. Gesture, Thought, and Spatial Language 87
Karen Emmorey and Shannon Casey
6. Organization of Temporal Situations 103
Nancy Franklin and Todd Federico
v
VI
7. Grounding Meaning in Visual Knowledge. A Case 121
Study: Dimensional Adjectives
Anna Goy
8. Understanding How We Think about Space 147
Christina Manning, Maria D. Sera
and Herbert L. Pick, Jr.
9. The Real Story of "Over"? 165
Kenny R. Coventry and Gayna Mather
10. Generating Spatial Descriptions from a Cognitive 185
Point of View
Robert Porzel, Martin Jansche and Ralf
Meyer-Klabunde
11. Multiple Frames of Reference in Interpreting
Complex Projective Terms 209
Carola Eschenbach, Christopher Habel
and Annette LejJmollmann
12. Goal-Directed Effects on Processing a Spatial 233
Environment. Indications from Memory and
Language
Holly A. Taylor and Susan J Naylor
13. Memory for Text and Memory for Space. Two 255
Concurrent Memory Systems?
Monika Wagener-Wender
Author index 271
Subject Index 279
Preface
People constantly talk to each other about experience or knowledge resulting
from spatial perception; they describe the size, shape, orientation and
position of objects using a wide range of spatial expressions. The semantic
treatment of such expressions presents particular challenges for natural
language processing. The meaning representation used must be capable of
distinguishing between fine-grained sense differences and ambiguities
grounded in our experience and perceptual structure.
There have been many different approaches to the representation and
processing of spatial expressions including geometric schemas, semantic
nets, fuzzy sets and predicate logic. Yet most existing computational
characterisations have been restricted to particularly narrow problem
domains (that is, specific spatial contexts determined by overall system
goals) and have only considered geometric components of the meaning of
locative expressions.
To date, artificial intelligence research in this field has rarely taken
advantage of studies of language and spatial cognition carried out by the
cognitive science community. Cognitively informed computational
treatments of spatial expressions should not only address the representation
of space (including topology, shape, orientation and location) but also the
perceptual and functional context of the speaker/perceiver. These in tum
evoke notions such as the dynamic nature of point of view, perceptual
constraints, references frames (and their categorisation), attention, and the
categorisation and schematisation of shape and spatial relations themselves.
Other important issues are the mappings between object recognition and
object naming; spatial reasoning and spatial terms. For computational
imagery, there are many additional issues, in particular, the definition,
nature, and functionality of cognitive maps.
The papers in this book are based round a selection of papers which were
accepted for presentation at the workshop on the Representation and
Processing of Spatial Expressions at the European Conference on Artificial
Intelligence, held in Budapest in 1996, and the workshop on Language and
Space which was part of the 14th National Conference on Artificial
Intelligence held in Providence, Rhode Island in 1997. The papers reflect a
commitment to fostering links between researchers in cognitive science and
artificial intelligence, which formed the main motivation for the workshops.
As a result, the papers in this volume present computational work, empirical
work, or a combination of both.
vii
viii
We are grateful to all the people who formed the workshop orgamsmg
committee, who also reviewed the papers in the present volume. These
include Wolfgang Maass, Amitabha Mukerjee, Klaus-Peter Gapp, Simone
Pribbenow, Michael Schober, Joerg Schirra, Rohini Srihari, Barbara Tversky
and Laura Vieu.
We would also like to thank Dan Joyce and Lynn Richards for
commenting and proof reading all the chapters, and to Mark Cooper for
assistance in formatting some of the figures. Finally we would like to thank
Christianne Roll at Kluwer for her good-humoured perseverance and
encouragement.
Kenny R. Coventry
Patrick Olivier
Plymouth and York, February 2001
List of Contributors
Shannon Casey, Linguistics Department, University of California, San
Diego, California, USA
Kenny R. Coventry, Centre for Thinking and Language, Department of
Psychology, University of Plymouth, Plymouth, Devon, UK
Ingo Duwe, Universitat Bielefeld, SFB 360 "Situierte Klinstliche
Kommunikatoren", Postfach 100l31, 33501 Bielefeld, Germany
Geoffrey Edwards, Departement des sciences geomatiques, Pavillon Louis
Jacques-Casault, Universite Laval, Ste-Foy, Quebec, Canada
Karen Emmorey, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, San
Diego, California, USA
Carola Eschenbach, Arbeitsbereich WSV, Fachbereich Informatik,
UniversiHit Hamburg, Vogt-Kolln-StraBe 30, 22527 Hamburg, Germany
Todd Federico, Department of Psychology, SUNY, Stony Brook, N.Y.
11794-2500, USA
Nancy Franklin, Department of Psychology, SUNY, Stony Brook, N.Y.
11794-2500, USA
Anna Goy, Dipartmento di Informatica, Universita di Torino, Corso Svizzera
185 - 10149, Torino, Italy
Agnes Gryl, Departement Communication Homme-Machine, groupe
Cognition Humaine, LIMSI-CNRS, Batiment 508, Universite de Paris-Sud,
91403 ORSAY, France
Christopher Habel, Arbeitsbereich WSV, Fachbereich Informatik,
Universitat Hamburg, Vogt-Kolln-StraBe 30, 22527 Hamburg, Germany
Martin Jansche, Department of Linguistics, Ohio State University,
Columbus, Ohio, USA
ix
x
Tanja Jording, Dresden University of Technology, Department of Computer
Science, Institute for Softwaretechnology II, Multimedia Technology Group,
Diirerstr.24, 01062 Dresden, Germany
Klaus Kessler, Universitat Bielefeld, Fakultat fur Linguistik und
Literaturwissenschaft, SFB 360 "Situierte Klinstliche Kommunikatoren",
Postfach 100131,33501 Bielefeld, Germany
Driss Kettani, Defence Research Establishment, Valcartier, 2459 Pie XI
Blvd. North Val Belair, Quebec, G3J lX5, Canada
Annette LeJ3mollmann, Arbeitsbereich WSV, Fachbereich Informatik,
Universitat Hamburg, Vogt-Kolln-StraBe 30, 22527 Hamburg, Germany
Christina Manning, Arbeitsbereich WSV, Fachbereich Informatik,
Universitat Hamburg, Vogt-Kolln-StraBe 30, 22527 Hamburg, Germany
Gayna Mather, Centre for Thinking and Language, Department of
Psychology, University of Plymouth, Plymouth, Devon, UK
Ralf Meyer-Klabunde, Universitat Heidelberg, Lehrstuhl fUr
Computerlinguistik, KarlstraBe 2, D-69117 Heidelberg, Germany
Bernard Moulin, Universite Laval, Departement d'informatique, Pavilion
Pouliot, Ste-Foy, Quebec GIK 7P4, Canada.
Susan J Naylor, Psychology Department, Tufts University, Paige Hall,
Medford, MA 02155, USA
Patrick Olivier, Department of Computer Science, The University of York,
Heslington, York, UK
Herbert L. Pick, Jr., Institute Of Child Development, University of
Minnesota, 51 E River Rd, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
Robert Porzel, European Media Laboratory GmbH, Villa Bosch, SchloB
Wolfsbrunnenweg 33, D-69118 Heidelberg, Germany
Maria D. Sera, Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota, 51
E River Rd, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
xi
Hans Strohner, Universitat Bielefeld, Fakultat :fur Linguistik und
Literaturwissenschaft, SFB 360 "Situierte Klinstliche Kommunikatoren",
Postfach 100131,33501 Bielefeld, Germany
Holly A. Tay/or, Psychology Department, Tufts University, Paige Hall,
Medford, MA 02155, USA
Jpke Wachsmuth, AG WBS, Technische Fakultaet, Universitaet Bielefeld,
Postfach 10 01 31, D-3350 1 Bielefeld, Germany
Monika Wagener-Wender, Department of Psychology, University of Trier,
D-54286 Trier, Germany