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Spatial semantics: Modeling the meaning of prepositions
Author(s) -
Zwarts Joost
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
language and linguistics compass
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.619
H-Index - 44
ISSN - 1749-818X
DOI - 10.1111/lnc3.12241
Subject(s) - polysemy , semantics (computer science) , computer science , linguistics , categorization , pragmatics , meaning (existential) , domain (mathematical analysis) , function (biology) , space (punctuation) , perspective (graphical) , natural language processing , artificial intelligence , epistemology , mathematics , philosophy , programming language , mathematical analysis , evolutionary biology , biology
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.