TY - JOUR
T1 - Exploring Regional Variation in Spatial Language Using Spatially Stratified Web-Sampled Route Direction Documents
AU - Xu, Sen
AU - Klippel, Alexander
AU - MacEachren, Alan M.
AU - Mitra, Prasenjit
N1 - Funding Information:
Research for this article was funded by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency/NGA through the NGA University Research Initiative Program/NURI program.
Publisher Copyright:
©, Copyright Taylor & Francis.
PY - 2014/10/2
Y1 - 2014/10/2
N2 - Spatial language, such as route directions, can be analyzed to shed light on how humans communicate and conceptualize spatial knowledge. This article details a computational linguistic approach using route directions to study regional variations in spatial language. We developed a web-sourcing approach to collect human-generated route direction documents on a geographical scale. Specifically, we built the Spatially strAtified Route Direction (SARD) Corpus through automated scraping, classifying, and georeferencing of route directions. Based on semantic categories of cardinal and relative direction terms, the analysis of the SARD Corpus reveals significant differences and patterns on both national (United States, United Kingdom, and Australia) and regional (contiguous U.S. states) levels. Combining computational linguistics and georeferencing approaches offers the potential for extending classic spatial linguistic studies.
AB - Spatial language, such as route directions, can be analyzed to shed light on how humans communicate and conceptualize spatial knowledge. This article details a computational linguistic approach using route directions to study regional variations in spatial language. We developed a web-sourcing approach to collect human-generated route direction documents on a geographical scale. Specifically, we built the Spatially strAtified Route Direction (SARD) Corpus through automated scraping, classifying, and georeferencing of route directions. Based on semantic categories of cardinal and relative direction terms, the analysis of the SARD Corpus reveals significant differences and patterns on both national (United States, United Kingdom, and Australia) and regional (contiguous U.S. states) levels. Combining computational linguistics and georeferencing approaches offers the potential for extending classic spatial linguistic studies.
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U2 - 10.1080/13875868.2014.943904
DO - 10.1080/13875868.2014.943904
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84907526377
VL - 14
SP - 255
EP - 283
JO - Spatial Cognition and Computation
JF - Spatial Cognition and Computation
SN - 1387-5868
IS - 4
ER -