Abstract
This paper develops a theoretical framework for defining and representing kinds of geographic entities. The “Spatial Data Transfer Standard” (SDTS) of the United States is used. as. a starting point for discussion. SDTS defines entities in the world, objects as mathematical or computational constructs, and features as both entities and the objects that represent them. The paper reviews the central role played by categories in human cognition, and the relationships between categories and words of natural language. Although categories may appear to exist in an objective world, they are more- properly (and conservatively) thought of as existing in human minds and cultures. This means that category definitions and boundaries can be expected to vary in cross-cultural, cross-linguistic, and cross-disciplinary comparisons, and even at an individual level. This in turn implies that development of ‘universal’ entity type schemes will be very difficult. Some of the difficulties are illustrated for the superficiallysimple example of standing water bodies in English, French, and Spanish. Category boundaries appear to differ not only across languages but also geographically within languages. Human subjects testing will likely be required to explore the nature of geographical entity types as cognitive categories.
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Abler, Ronald F., 1987. The National Science Foundation National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis. International Journal of Geographical Information Systems, vol. 1, no. 4, pp. 303–326.
Berlin, B., and P. Kay, 1969, Basic Color Terms: Their Universality and Evolution. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Canada, 1987. Glossary of generic terms in Canada's geographic names (Génériques en usage dans les noms géographiques du Canada). Terminology Bulletin 176, Ottawa: Secrétariat d'Etat du Canada (Department of the Secretary of State of Canada).
Cassirer, E., 1923. Substance and Function. New York: Dover.
Couclelis, Helen, 1988. The truth seekers: Geographers in search of the human world. In Golledge, R., Couclelis, H., and Gould, P, editors, A Ground for Common Search. Santa Barbara, CA: The Santa Barbara Geographical Press, pp. 148–155.
Daigle, J. O., 1984. A Dictionary of the Cajun Language. Ann Arbor, Michigan: Edwards Brothers, Inc.
DGIWG, 1992. The Digital Geographic Information Standard (DIGEST): Part 4, Feature and Attribute Coding Catalog (FACC). Washington, DC: U.S. Defense Mapping Agency.
Fegeas, R. G., Cascio, J. L., and Lazar, R. A., 1992. An Overview of FIPS 173, the Spatial Data Transfer Standard. Cartography and Geographic Information Systems 19 (5), 278–293.
Frank, A. and D. M. Mark, 1991. Language Issues for GIS, in: D. Maguire, M. Goodchild, and D. Rhind, editors, Geographical Information Systems: Principles and Applications, Longman, London, vol. 1, pp. 147–163.
Lakoff, George, 1987. Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things: What Categories Reveal About the Mind. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Lakoff, George, and Johnson, Mark, 1980. Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Mark, D. M., 1989. Cognitive image-schemata for geographic information: Relations to user views and GIS interfaces. Proceedings, GIS/LIS'89, Orlando, Florida, in press.
Mark, D. M., and Frank, A. U., 1989. Concepts of space and spatial language. Proceedings, Ninth International Symposium on Computer-Assisted Cartography, Baltimore, Maryland, 538–556.
McNeill, Daniel, and Freiberger, Paul, 1993, Fuzzy Logic. New York: Simon & Shuster
Morrison, Joel L., 1992. Introduction. Cartography and Geographic Information Systems 19 (5), 277.
National Committee for Digital Cartographic Data Standards, 1988. The Proposed Standard for Digital Cartographic Data. The American Cartographer, 15[1], 9–140.
NCGIA (National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis), 1989. The research plan of the National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis. International Journal of Geographical Information Systems, vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 117–136.
Rosch, E., 1973. On the internal structure of perceptual and semantic categories. in T. E. Moore (editor), Cognitive Development and the Acquisition of Language, New York, Academic Press.
Rosch, E., 1978. Principles of categorization. In E. Rosch and B.B. Lloyd (editors) Cognition and Categorization. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Smith, E. E., and Medin, D. L., 1981. Categories and Concepts. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
Velázquez de la Cadena, Mariano, 1973. A New Pronouncing Dictionary of the Spanish and English Languages (compiled with Edward Gray and Juan L. Iribas). Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Whorf, B. L., 1940. Science and linguistics. Technology Review (M.I.T.), 42(6) Reprinted in Carroll, John B., editor, 1956. Language, Thought, and Reality: Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The M.I.T. Press, pp. 207–219.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1993 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Mark, D.M. (1993). Toward a theoretical framework for geographic entity types. In: Frank, A.U., Campari, I. (eds) Spatial Information Theory A Theoretical Basis for GIS. COSIT 1993. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 716. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-57207-4_18
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-57207-4_18
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-57207-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-47966-6
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive