Nearness as context-dependent expression: an integrative review of modeling, measurement and contextual properties

• Published in: Spatial cognition and computation Vol. 20; no. 3; pp. 161 - 233
• Main Authors: Novel, Marc, Grütter, Rolf, Boley, Harold, Bernstein, Abraham
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Mahwah Taylor & Francis 02.07.2020; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Cognitive modelling; common sense and qualitative models of space; Context; context dependency; Distance measurement; Literature reviews; nearness; spatial language; uncertainty/vagueness
• ISSN: 1387-5868; 1542-7633; 1573-9252
• DOI: 10.1080/13875868.2020.1754832

Nearness expressions such as "near" are context-dependent spatial relations and are subject to the context variability effect. Depending on the provided context, "near" has a different semantic extension. We perform a literature review to identify the effect of context on "near". To integrate the insights from different disciplines, we apply Turney's contextualization framework which distinguishes between two types of features: primary and contextual. Primary features are the qualitative and quantitative distance measures and contextual features are the context factors used to determine a threshold on the nearness measurements. Additionally, we identify the appropriate features for different spatial tasks discussed in the literature. By doing so, we seek to build a foundation for a context-dependent model for "near".