Research Group: Spatial References

The Spatial References Research Group focused on two primary themes: the methodological development of tools to extract spatial information from texts and the cultural understanding of spatial language. The group explored how language encodes spatial references and how this understanding can inform both linguistic analysis and cultural insights.

Research Focus:

1. Methodological Development for Extracting Spatial Information:
   The group worked on developing methods to automatically extract and analyze spatial references, such as place names (toponyms), from texts. Their focus was on automatic named entity recognition to identify and ground references to specific locations. This included:

   • Toponym recognition and classification: Identifying and categorizing natural (e.g., mountains, lakes) and man-made entities (e.g., cabins, dams).
   • Disambiguation: Resolving geo/non-geo ambiguities (e.g., Mönch as a mountain or monk) and geo/geo ambiguities (e.g., multiple mountains named Schwarzhorn).
   • Machine learning approaches: Using statistical and hybrid methods for toponym recognition in large corpora. While initial research used well-annotated corpora like Wikipedia and Twitter, the group emphasized the need for methods suited to more traditional, spatially-rich texts such as mountaineering narratives found in the Text+Berg corpus.

2. Cultural Understanding Through Spatially-Rich Texts:
   The group also examined how spatial language reflects cultural understandings of landscape. Key projects included:

   • Ekaterina Egorova’s PhD thesis: Focused on the use of spatial language (e.g., fictive motion) in mountaineering narratives, showing how such texts convey cultural perspectives on landscapes.
   • Manuel Bär’s PhD research: Explored the potential of gamification to gather rich landscape descriptions in situ. This method helped collect spatially-referenced natural language and offered insights into human perceptions of landscape.

   By analyzing texts that describe landscapes—whether in mountaineering reports, postcards, or oral narratives—the group aimed to understand how language influences human-landscape relations. This research provided valuable insights into the cultural meanings attached to landscapes and had implications for decision-making processes related to land use and cultural practices.

Key Findings:

• The group’s methodological advances in spatial information extraction provided robust tools for analyzing spatially rich texts and resolving ambiguities in place names.
• Their cultural research demonstrated how spatial descriptions in language reflect broader cultural relationships with the landscape, revealing how people perceive and interact with their environment.

Through this dual focus on methodological development and cultural analysis, the Spatial References Research Group contributed to both the understanding of spatial language and its role in shaping human perceptions of the landscape. Their research highlighted the significant role language plays in our interactions with and cultural interpretations of space.