Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Cognitive and Linguistic Ideas in Geographic Information Semantics

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Book cover Cognitive and Linguistic Aspects of Geographic Space

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Geoinformation and Cartography ((LNGC))

Abstract

This chapter reviews ideas, rooted mostly in cognitive science and linguistics, to deal with semantics of geographic information. It discusses the following notions, dating roughly from the time between the two Las Navas meetings of 1990 and 2010: experiential realism, geographic information atoms, semantic reference systems, semantic datum, similarity measurement, conceptual spaces, meaning as process, and constraining the process of meaning. It shows why and how these ideas have been productive for semantics research and what future research they suggest.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Directive 2000/60/EC Art. 2(4), see http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:32000L0060:EN:NOT.

  2. 2.

    The plural form of this technical term is “datums”, as it is for geodetic datums (see, for example, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datum_(geodesy)).

References

  • Bateman JA (1993) Ontology construction and natural language. In: Poli R (ed) International workshop on formal ontology. LABSEB-CNR, Padova (Italy), pp 83–93

    Google Scholar 

  • Bizer C (2009) Linked data—the story so far. Int J Semant Web Inf Syst 5(3):1–22

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chrisman NR (1997) Exploring GIS, 1st edn. John Wiley College Division

    Google Scholar 

  • Cohn AG, Hazarika SM (2001) Qualitative spatial representation and reasoning: an overview. Fundamenta Informaticae 46(1–2):1–29

    Google Scholar 

  • Devaraju A (2012) Representing and reasoning about geographic occurrences in the sensor web. Dissertations in Geographic Information Science (GISDISS), vol 7. AKA, Verlag. ISBN:978-3-89838-673-9

    Google Scholar 

  • Duce S, Janowicz K (2010) Microtheories for spatial data infrastructures-accounting for diversity of local conceptualizations at a global level. Geographic information science. Lecture notes in computer science, vol 6292. Springer, Berlin, pp 27–41

    Google Scholar 

  • Fauconnier G, Turner M (2003) The way we think: conceptual blending and the mind’s hidden complexities. Basic Books, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Gärdenfors P (2000) Conceptual spaces—the geometry of thought. Bradford Books, MIT Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Gärdenfors P (2004) How to make the semantic web more semantic. In: Varzi A, Lieu L (eds) Formal ontology in information systems. IOS Press, Amsterdam, pp 17–34

    Google Scholar 

  • Goodchild MF (1992) Geographic data modeling. Comput Geosci 18(4):401–408

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goodchild MF (2007) Editorial: citizens as voluntary sensors: spatial data infrastructure in the world of web 2.0. Int J Spatial Data Infrastruct Res 2:24–32

    Google Scholar 

  • Goodchild MF, Yuan M, Cova T (2007) Towards a general theory of geographic representation in GIS. Int J Geogr Inf Sci 21(3):239–260

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gruber TR (1993) A translation approach to portable ontology specifications. Knowl Acquis 5(2):199–220

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Guarino N (1992) Concepts, attributes and arbitrary relations: some linguistic and ontological criteria for structuring knowledge bases. Data Knowl Eng 8(3):249–261

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Janowicz K, Raubal M, Kuhn W (2011) The semantics of similarity in geographic information retrieval. J Spatial Inf Sci 2:29–57

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson M (1987) The body in the mind: the bodily basis of meaning, imagination, and reason. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Keßler C (2011) What is the difference? A cognitive dissimilarity measure for information retrieval result sets. Knowl Inf Syst 30(2):319–340

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kuhn W (1993) Metaphors create theories for users. In: Frank AU, Campari I (eds) Spatial information theory a theoretical basis for GIS. Lecture notes in computer science, vol 716. Springer, Berlin, pp 366–376

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuhn W (1997) Approaching the issue of information loss in geographic data transfers. Geogr Syst 4(3):261–276

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuhn W (2002) Modeling the semantics of geographic categories through blendings. In: Lund SN, Turner M (eds) The way we think—research symposium on conceptual integration. University of Southern Denmark, Odense (Denmark)

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuhn W (2003) Semantic reference systems (guest editorial). Int J Geogr Inf Sci 17(5):405–409

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kuhn W (2005) Geospatial semantics: why, of what, and how? J Data Semant (Special issue on semantic-based geographical information systems, Spring 2005) Lecture notes in computer science, vol 3534. Springer, Berlin, pp 1–24

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuhn W (2007) An image-schematic account of spatial categories. In: Winter S, Duckham M, Kulik L, Kuipers B (eds) 8th international conference on spatial information theory (COSIT). Lecture notes in computer science, vol 4736. Springer, Melbourne, pp 152–168

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuhn W (2009) Semantic engineering. Research trends in geographic information science. Lecture notes in geoinformation and cartography. Springer, Berlin, pp 63–76

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuhn W (2010) Modeling vs encoding. Semant Web Interoperability Usability Appl 1(1):11–15

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuhn W, Frank AU (1991) A formalization of metaphors and image-schemas in user interfaces. In: Mark DM, Frank AU (eds) Cognitive and linguistic aspects of geographic space (NATO ASI Series D, vol 63) Kluwer Academic Publishers, The Netherlands, pp 419–434

    Google Scholar 

  • Lakoff GP (1987) Women, fire, and dangerous things. what categories reveal about the mind. University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Lakoff GP (1990) The invariance hypothesis: is abstract reason based on image-schemas? Cogn Linguist 1(1):39–74

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lakoff GP, Johnson M (1980) Metaphors we live by. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Mark DM, Frank AU (1991) Cognitive and linguistic aspects of geographic space. NATO ASI Series D, vol 63 (519 pp) Kluwer Academic Publishers, The Netherlands

    Google Scholar 

  • Nuñes J (1991) Geographic space as a set of concrete geographical entities. In: Mark DM, Frank AU (eds) Cognitive and linguistic aspects of geographic space (NATO ASI Series D, vol 63) Kluwer Academic Publishers, The Netherlands, pp 9–34

    Google Scholar 

  • Ogden CK, Richards IA (1923) The meaning of meaning. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Ortmann J, Kuhn W (2010) Affordances as Qualities. In: Galton A, Mizoguchi R (eds) 6th international conference on formal ontology in information systems (FOIS). IOS Press, Toronto (Canada), pp 117–130

    Google Scholar 

  • Probst F (2008) Observations, measurements and semantic reference spaces. Appl Ontol 3(1):63–89

    Google Scholar 

  • Pylyshyn ZW (2007) Things and places. How the mind connects with the world. The MIT Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Raubal M, Worboys MF (1999) A formal model of the process of wayfinding in built environments. In: Freksa C, Mark DM (ed) Spatial information theory—cognitive and computational foundations of geographic information science (COSIT). Lecture notes in computer science, vol 1661. Springer, Berlin, pp 381–399

    Google Scholar 

  • Raubal M, Egenhofer MJ, Pfoser D, Tryfona N (1997) Structuring space with image schemata: wayfinding in airports as a case study. In: Hirtle S, Frank A (eds) Spatial information theory—a theoretical basis for GIS, international conference (COSIT). Lecture notes in computer science, vol 1329. Springer, Berlin, pp 85–102

    Google Scholar 

  • Reddy MJ (1979) The conduit metaphor: a case of frame conflict in our language about language. In: Ortony A (ed) Metaphor and thought. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 284–310

    Google Scholar 

  • Riedemann C (2005) Matching names and definitions of topological operators. In: Cohn AG, Mark DM (eds) Spatial information theory: cognitive and computational foundations (COSIT). Lecture notes in computer science, vol 3693. Springer, Berlin, pp 165–181

    Google Scholar 

  • Rodríguez AM, Egenhofer MJ (2004) Comparing geospatial entity classes: an asymmetric and context-dependent similarity measure. Int J Geogr Inf Sci 18(3):229–256

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scheider S (2011) Grounding geographic information in perceptual operations. PhD thesis, University of Münster. http://www.geographicknowledge.de/pdf/MyThesis.pdf

  • Scheider S, Kuhn W (2010) Affordance-based categorization of road network data using a grounded theory of channel networks. Int J Geogr Inf Sci 24(8):1249–1267

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scheider S, Kuhn W (2011) Finite relativist geometry grounded in perceptual operations. In: Egenhofer MJ, Giudice N, Moratz R, Worboys MF (eds) 10th conference on spatial information theory (COSIT). Lecture notes in computer science, vol 6899. Springer, Berlin, pp 304–327

    Google Scholar 

  • Scheider S, Janowicz K, Kuhn W (2009) Grounding geographic categories in the meaningful environment. In: Hornsby KS, Claramunt C, Ligozat G (eds) 9th International Conference on Spatial Information Theory (COSIT). Lecture notes in computer science, vol 5756. Springer, Berlin, pp 69–87

    Google Scholar 

  • Schwering A, Kuhn W (2009) A hybrid similarity measure for spatial information retrieval. J Spatial Cogn Comput 9(1):30–63

    Google Scholar 

  • Sloman A (2008) architectural and representational requirements for seeing processes and affordances. In: Computational modelling workshop, closing the gap between neurophysiology and behaviour: a computational modelling approach. http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/research/projects/cosy/papers/sloman-newmod.pdf

  • Warren WH (1984) Perceiving affordances: visual guidance of stair climbing. J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform 10(5):683–703

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Worboys MF (2005) Event-oriented approaches to geographic phenomena. Int J Geogr Inf Sci 19(1):1–28

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

My participation at Las Navas 1990 was supported by the NATO Advanced Study Institute program; that at Las Navas 2010 by the Vespucci Initiative (http://vespucci.org). The German Science Foundation (DFG) has funded semantics research at MUSIL (http://musil.uni-muenster.de) through the International Research Training Group (IRTG) on Semantic Integration of Geospatial Information, as well as through the Semantic Reference Systems (SeReS) and Similarity Reasoning (SimCat) projects. A stay at INPE, the Brazilian Institute for Space Research (http://www.inpe.br/) helped me to extend and revise the chapter, based on comments from Las Navas 2010 participants and two anonymous reviewers.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Muenster Semantic Interoperability Lab (MUSIL), Institute for Geoinformatics, University of Muenster, Muenster, Germany

    Werner Kuhn

Authors
  1. Werner Kuhn
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Werner Kuhn .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Institute of Cartography, ETH Zurich, Wolfgang-Pauli-Str. 15, Zurich, 8093, Switzerland

    Martin Raubal

  2. , Department of Geography, University of Buffalo, Wilkeson Quad 105, New York, 14261, USA

    David M. Mark

  3. , Institute for Geoinformation, TU Wien, Gusshausstr. 27-29, Vienna, 1040, Austria

    Andrew U. Frank

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Kuhn, W. (2013). Cognitive and Linguistic Ideas in Geographic Information Semantics. In: Raubal, M., Mark, D., Frank, A. (eds) Cognitive and Linguistic Aspects of Geographic Space. Lecture Notes in Geoinformation and Cartography. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-34359-9_9

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation