Spatial semantics: Modeling the semantics of prepositions

Abstract

Reference to space, especially with prepositions, plays a central role in natural language and is receiving more and more attention over the past decades. One line of research uses formal semantic modeling, using topological and other geometrical concepts such as regions, vectors, and paths. Another line of research has drawn attention to the role of function, force-dynamics, polysemy, prototypes, and crosslinguistic variation in this domain. This paper gives an overview of both lines of research and argues that a synthesis is possible, based on a proper division of labor between semantics and pragmatics, richer ontologies, and a perspective on categorization that uses conceptual spaces and semantic maps.