Using Qualitative Spatial Reasoning for a Deictic Perspective Calculus

• Grant number: 18/11255-3
• Support type: Scholarships abroad - Research
• Effective date (Start): October 03, 2018
• Effective date (End): April 02, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Linguistics - Linguistic Theory and Analysis
• Principal researcher: Marcos Fernando Lopes
• Grantee: Marcos Fernando Lopes
• Host: Christian Freksa
• Home Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Research place: University of Bremen, Germany

Abstract

Qualitative Spatial Reasoning (QSR) is a subfield of Artificial Intelligence that addresses the formal knowledge representation of spatial problems without relying on measures, coordinates, or numeric models, just on symbolic mapping of expressions and logic calculi, so it often relates to linguistic semantics and computational linguistics. This project presents a semantic-computational inquiry into spatiality in natural language utterances in order to put forth both descriptive and inferential models capable of rendering a qualitative calculus for the deictic perspective, which is one of the most commonly used perspective systems in conversational contexts. With a formal ontology of spatial objects embedded, this calculus should be easily integrated to Natural Language Inference algorithms. Theoretical foundations of spatial relations representations such as the figure / ground distinction and perspectives systems are discussed and a fragment of the deictic perspective calculus is introduced.

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

RODRIGUES, EDILSON J.; SANTOS, PAULO E.; LOPES, MARCOS; BENNETT, BRANDON; OPPENHEIMER, PAUL E. Standpoint semantics for polysemy in spatial prepositions. JOURNAL OF LOGIC AND COMPUTATION, v. 30, n. 2, p. 635-661, MAR 2020. Web of Science Citations: 0.