Vectors across Spatial Domains: From Place to Size, Orientation, Shape, and Parts
Joost Zwarts · Oxford University Press eBooks · 2003
This chapter describes a formal semantic model of space based on vectors that integrates the semantics of four spatial domains: size, orientation, shape, and spatial parts. In this way, two important uses of vectors are integrated, the ‘place use’ (proposed for prepositional relations) and the ‘axis use’ (used to encode size, orientation, and shape in object representations). Spatial relationships and their modifications in each of these domains can be explained with a vector-based approach. Vector representations are based on a point geometry in which both direction and distance are regarded as basic. In order to assign values to the distance and direction components of a vector, a vector representation requires some form of coordinate system (Cartesian, or polar).