Learning spatial prepositions is an important problem in spatial cognition. We describe a model for learning how to classify visual scenes according to what spatial preposition they depict. We use SEQL, an existing model of analogical generalization, to construct relational descriptions from stimuli input as hand-drawn sketches. We show that this model can distinguish between in, on, above, bel...

Prepositions name spatial relationships (e.g., book on a table). But they are also used to convey abstract, non-spatial relationships (e.g., Adrian is on a roll)-raising the question of how the abstract uses relate to the concrete spatial uses. Despite considerable success in delineating these relationships, no general account exists for the two most frequently extended prepositions: in and on....

As far as I know, the semantics of such modified numerals has so far only been discussed in Corver and Zwarts (2006), who focus on the close relation between the locative spatial semantics of prepositions like under and their use in numeral quantifiers. In this paper, I will turn to directional prepositions and investigate the role of directionality in numeral modification. I will zoom in on th...

a considerable part of precipitation falls in the form of snow in golestan watershed. in turn, snowmelt plays a significant role in surface runoff, groundwater feeding and flood propagation in this area. snow cover area (sca) as an indicator of stored water can be implemented for temporal and spatial monitoring of snowmelt in the hydrological models. to monitor spatial and temporal variation of...

This paper explores from a neuropsychological perspective the relation between the meanings of English locative prepositions (e.g., in, on, above, below) and the kinds of representations that are used for many visuospatial processes such as recognising, drawing, and constructing spatially complex objects. One possibility that has been proposed by some psycholinguists is that the meanings of pre...

The learning of spatial prepositions is assumed to be based on experience in space. In a slow mapping study, we investigated whether 31 German 28-month-old children could robustly learn the German spatial prepositions hinter [behind] and neben [next to] from pictures, and whether a narrative input can compensate for a lack of immediate experience in space. One group of children received picture...

This paper presents an account of how literal and metaphoric readings of spatial prepositions in so-called “Boolean Phrases” can arise. The account aims to explain how metaphoric and literal readings can interact, when two (spatial) prepositional phrases are the arguments of one phrase headed by Boolean connectives and and or (e.g. in front of the car and over his problems). It is shown that th...

In this paper the results of three experiments are reported which address the issue of the relative extent to which functional relations versus geometric relations affect spatial language. The experiments examine the role of a discourse context on the use and rating of the preposition in to describe a visual scene where the constraint of spatial containment between figure (object located) and g...