Semantics of motion verbs

Motion verbs in languages convey the meanings of spatiotemporal change. Ontologies that deal with spatial actions can benefit from the study of such verbs and their usage. This paper explores semantic components of motion related verbs and verb complexes. Such semantics components assume certain spatial primitives and intuitions which need to be considered in the context of ontologies derived from textual descriptions. We formalise such constraints for concepts of motion derived from motion verb complexes and discuss their use in ontology specification. 1. Spatial changes and motion verbs Motion verbs have been widely studied, as compared to other classes of verbs and are of significant in the context of Ontologies in the geospatial domain (Sen, 2004). Verbs of spatial configuration, lodge verbs, avoidance verbs and occurrence verbs have strong relevance in motion representation as well. Asher and Sablayrolles (1994) discuss a complex formal calculus for motion complexes (verbs with prepositions) to obtain their semantics. The Levin’s classification (Levin, 1991) is relatively simple because it deals with motion verbs in nine categories. The spatial alternations of verbs are dealt separately. These classifications are not formalized as compared to the work of Sablayrolles (1995), Landau and Jackendoff (1993) both of which have a similar notion of classification of motion based on the motion starting, path and final positions. This is done primarily on the basis of partition of space into inside, external zone of contact and