Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Having said this, current approaches of user-generated database content do apply
an extensional approach. Letting users add what they think is a landmark may not
explain what a landmark is, but it has a potential to collect datasets of a global scale,
as has been proven with OpenStreetMap . 5
1.1.2
A Cognitive Semantics Approach
Rosch [ 38 ] argues that two principles drive the formation of categories in the
mind. One is cognitive economy, calling for grouping similar things together and
giving them a name. The other principle is rather a recognition that the continuous
world outside of the body is actually structured and forms natural discontinuities.
Categories are then, economically, formed by objects that have many attributes in
common and share not many attributes with members of other categories [ 39 ] .
This idea has to be taken by a grain of salt, though. Wittgenstein had famously
interjected that at least several natural categories appear to have no common
attributes, or none that are not shared with members of other categories—he
used the category of games (board games, card games, olympic games) for
this argument [ 50 ] . Instead of commonalities Wittgenstein argues for a family
resemblance , which is only a matter of similarity. As a consequence, Rosch [ 38 ]
suggests to apply a measure of category resemblance derived by Tversky from
similarities: “Category resemblance is a linear combination of the measures of the
common and the distinctive feature of all pairs of objects in that category” ([ 47 ] ,
p. 348). Thus, category resemblance describes the inner coherence of a category,
without requiring a catalog of shared attributes. Imagine a space spanned by some
conceptual properties. In this space each object forms a node. Convex categories can
be formed by clustering these nodes such that if x and y are member of a category
and z is between x and y than z is member of the category as well [ 16 ] . These
conceptual spaces form a mathematical basis to express family resemblance.
Extending such a notion of a category, prototype theory calls in more central
entities— prototypes —and accepts graded membership to a category [ 27 , 37 , 38 ] .
For example, probably most people would agree that the Eiffel Tower is a landmark,
and in surveys the Eiffel Tower is always highly ranked (e.g., Fig. 1.3 ) , which makes
the Eiffel Tower a prototype in the category of landmarks. But how many people
would agree that the blue house at the street corner is a landmark, the ATM in
the mall, the T-intersection where one has to turn right, or the only tree far and wide
marking the entrance to the farm? These are perhaps more ambiguous entities in the
category.
By the way, landmarks are not special in this respect. Any classification of
objects in geographic space is to some extent arbitrary, and has its prototypes and
its boundary cases. For example, we may have a clear understanding of what a
building is, a mountain, or a road. They are everyday terms, and basic categories in
5 http://www.openstreetmap.org , last visited 3/1/2014.
 
 
 
Search WWH ::




Custom Search