| Title |
Expressing distance in the Baltic languages: remarks on the use of an extended RCC / |
| Authors |
Žilinskaitė-Šinkūnienė, Eglė ; Šķilters, Jurģis ; Zariņa, Līga |
| DOI |
10.22364/BJMC.2020.8.1.04 |
| Full Text |
|
| Is Part of |
Baltic journal of modern computing.. University of Latvia. 2020, vol. 8, no. 1, p. 69-91.. ISSN 2255-8942. eISSN 2255-8950 |
| Keywords [eng] |
distance ; near ; far ; RCC ; geometry ; the Baltic languages |
| Abstract [eng] |
The aim of this paper is to demonstrate how the distance between two objects is expressed in the Baltic languages in a geometric framework. The geometric framework in this research is based on Region Connection Calculus (Randell et al., 1992), representing different spatial relations between two circles depending on the primitive topological relation of connectedness and extended with the operators of distance (near / far) and orientation (left / right, above / below, oblique). The paper summarizes the results of two experiments conducted with 106 Lithuanian and 105 Latvian participants, and provides an interpretation of 15 stimuli with the emphasis on the usage of the terms that express proximity, remoteness and which specify distance. Our results indicate different determining factors for the use of these three groups of terms. Proximity terms clearly depend on the change in distance: as the distance between the circles decreases, the number of proximity terms increases, but the largest number of them is generated for externally connected circles. In addition, the largest number and variety of proximity terms are produced for the horizontal axis, less – for the oblique, and least – for the vertical. The terms indicating remoteness are most compatible with the greatest distance between the circles and with horizontal axes as well. The usage of the distance-specifying phrases, in contrast, does not depend on axis and increase or decrease in distance. The presence of any distance seems to be a determining factor for attempting to express it in certain measurements. |
| Published |
University of Latvia |
| Type |
Journal article |
| Language |
English |
| Publication date |
2020 |
| CC license |
|
