Geographic Categories: An Ontological Investigation

这项研究的结果将有助于我们理解地理对象及其相关的认知范畴。这将通过开发正式的本体论来实现，而正式的本体论又将基于严格的、使用人类受试者的跨语言经验研究。初步研究表明，地理对象具有不同于在桌面尺度上遇到的对象的重要本体论特征，并且这些特征在分类目的中是突出的。到目前为止，关于认知范畴性质的证据主要是基于对类似于人体及其部分--小动物和植物、人工制品和工具等--的实体进行分类的研究。本项目首次以系统的方式将这类查询扩展到地理对象领域。因此，它有可能有助于我们对人类认知范畴的一般理解，以及对地理领域认知的具体特征的理解。将在多个语言和地区进行并行研究，以形成多语言的本体。该项目将有助于地理信息系统(GIS)的发展，特别是空间数据传输和地理软件和数据的语义互操作。大多数当前的地理信息系统和空间数据基础设施都是基于地理对象(实体)的，改进的关于地理对象的性质及其类别的理论将提高作为地理数据的关键部分的要素编码方案的有效性。研究的多语种方面将有助于国际地理信息交流，并有助于环境、社会、军事和商业领域的多国项目的有效性。建议的研究至少在以下方面具有实际意义：(1)它可以帮助我们理解不同群体如何交换地理信息或无法交换地理信息。(2)它可以为具有稳定的类别系统和形式上严格的基础结构的空间数据库提供基础，从而支持知识交流标准的制定。(3)它可以为地理信息系统(GIS)提供默认特征，其方式可能有助于非专家更广泛地使用地理信息系统。

The results of this study will contribute to our understanding of geographic objects and associated cognitive categories. This will be achieved through the development of a formal ontology, which in turn will be based on rigorous, cross-linguistic empirical research using human subjects. Preliminary studies have indicated that geographic objects have important ontological features distinct from those of objects encountered at table-top scales, and that these features are salient for purposes of categorization. Evidence regarding the nature of cognitive categories has up to now been based primarily on studies of categorization of entities at scales similar to the human body and its parts--small animals and plants, artifacts and tools, etc.. The present project is the first to extend inquiries of this sort in systematic fashion to the domain of geographic objects. It thus has the potential to contribute to our understanding of human cognitive categorization in general, as well as to specific features of cognition in the geographic realm. Parallel studies will be conducted in several languages and regions, so that the resulting ontology will be multilingual.The project will contribute to the development of geographic information systems (GIS), especially to spatial data transfer and semantic interoperability of geographic software and data. Most current GISs, and spatial data infrastructures, are based on geographic objects (entities), and an improved theory of the nature of geographic objects and their categories will improve the effectiveness of feature coding schemes that are a key part of geographic data. The multilingual aspects of the research will contribute to international geographic information exchange, and to the effectiveness of multinational projects in environmental, social, military, and commercial domains. The proposed research can be of practical importance in at least the following ways: (1) It can help us to understand how different groups of people exchange, or fail to exchange, geographic information. (2) It can support the development of knowledge-interchange standards by providing the basis for spatial databases with stable category systems and formally rigorous underlying structure. (3) It can provide default characteristics for geographic information systems (GIS) in ways that may contribute to their broader usability by non-experts.