Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The Case for Grounding Databases

  • Conference paper
GeoSpatial Semantics (GeoS 2009)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 5892))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

What is the intended interpretation of a geospatial database in terms of reproducible experiences? How should places on a digital globe be interpreted on the earth surface? And how can their spatial relations be reconstructed? How should road network databases be interpreted in terms of observable traffic infrastructure? And how is data about waterways and their depths to be interpreted in terms of observable water bodies? In this paper, I argue that successful information retrieval and querying of data in context-free environments requires that such data interpretations need to be effectively coordinated. I give four arguments why the current approaches to semantic engineering fail as methods in that respect, and why a ‘grounding’ approach to describe their semantics is necessary.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Borgida, A., Mylopoulos, J.: Data semantics revisited. In: Bussler, C.J., Tannen, V., Fundulaki, I. (eds.) SWDB 2004. LNCS, vol. 3372, pp. 9–26. Springer, Heidelberg (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Sheth, A.P.: Changing focus on interoperability in information systems: From system, syntax, structure to semantics. In: Goodchild, M.F., Egenhofer, M.J., Fegeas, R., Kottman, C.A. (eds.) Interoperating Geographic Information Systems, pp. 5–30. Kluwer, Norwell (1999)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Berners-Lee, T., Hendler, J., Lassila, O.: The semantic web - a new form of web content that is meaningful to computers will unleash a revolution of new possibilities. Scientific American Magazine (2001)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Hayes, P.J.: The second naive physics manifesto. In: Hobbs, J.R., Moore, R.C. (eds.) Formal theories of the commonsense world. Ablex series in artificial intelligence. Ablex Publ. Corp., Norwood (1985)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Searle, J.R.: Minds, brains, and programs. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 3(3), 417–457 (1980)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Harnad, S.: The symbol grounding problem. Physica D (42), 335–346 (1990)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Shirky, C.: Ontology is overrated, http://www.shirky.com/writings/ontology_overrated.html

  8. Freksa, C., Barkowsky, T.: On the relation between spatial concepts and geographic objects. In: Burrough, P., Frank, A. (eds.) Geographic objects with indeterminate boundaries, pp. 109–121. Taylor Francis, London (1996)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Mathes, A.: Folksonomies - cooperative classification and communication through shared metadata, http://adammathes.com/academic/computer-mediated-communication/folksonomies.html

  10. Janowicz, K., Raubal, M., Schwering, A., Kuhn, W.: Special issue on semantic similarity measurement and geospatial applications. Transactions in GIS 12(6) (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Kuhn, W.: Semantic engineering. In: Navratil, G. (ed.) Research Trends in Geographic Information Science. Lecture Notes in Geoinformation and Cartography, vol. 12, pp. 63–76. Springer, Berlin (2009)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  12. Nilsson, N.J.: The physical symbol system hypothesis: Status and prospects. In: 50 Years of Artificial Intelligence, pp. 9–17 (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  13. van Glasersfeld, E.: On the concept of interpretation. Poetics 12(2/3), 207–218 (1983)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Genesereth, M.R., Nilsson, N.J.: Logical foundations of artifical intelligence. Kaufmann, Los Altos (1987)

    Google Scholar 

  15. Guarino, N.: Formal ontology and information systems. In: Guarino, N. (ed.) Formal ontology in information systems: Proceedings of the first international conference (FOIS 1998), Trento, Italy, June 6 - 8. Frontiers in artificial intelligence and applications, vol. 46, IOS Press, Amsterdam (1998)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Reddy, M.J.: The conduit metaphor: A case of frame conflict in our language about language. In: Ortony, A. (ed.) Metaphor and Thought, pp. 164–201. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1993)

    Google Scholar 

  17. Boyd, R.N.: Scientific realism (2002), http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/scientific-realism/

  18. Putnam, H.: The meaning of ’meaning’. In: Putnam, H. (ed.) Mind, Language, and Reality. Philosophical Papers, vol. 2, pp. 215–271. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1979)

    Google Scholar 

  19. Smith, B.: Beyond concepts: Ontology as reality representation. In: Varzi, A., Vieu, L. (eds.) Proceedings of FOIS, pp. 73–84. IOS Press, Amsterdam (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  20. Boyd, R.N.: On the current status of the issue of scientific realism. Erkenntnis 19, 45–90 (1983)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Lakoff, G.: Women, fire and dangerous things: What categories reveal about the mind. Univ. of Chicago Press, Chicago (1990)

    Google Scholar 

  22. Ladyman, J.: Understanding Philosophy of Science. Routledge, London (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  23. Quine, W.V.O.: Pursuit of Truth. Harvard University Press, Cambridge (1990)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  24. Duhem, P.: The Aim and Structure of Physical Theory. Princeton University Press, Princeton (1954)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  25. Quine, W.V.O.: Two dogmas of empiricism. The Philosophical Review 60, 20–43 (1951)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Mitchell, T.M.: The need for biases in learning generalizations. Technical report, Rutgers Computer Science Department, Technical Report CBM-TR-117 (1980)

    Google Scholar 

  27. Sober, E.: What is the problem of simplicity? In: Zellner, A., Keuzenkamp, H., McAleer, M. (eds.) Simplicity, Inference, and Modelling, pp. 13–32. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  28. Cohen, S.M.: Aristotle’s metaphysics (2008), http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle-metaphysics/

  29. Anonymous: Matter, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matter

  30. Flores, F.: The equivalence of mass and energy (2007), http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/equivME/

  31. Bridgman, P.W.: The Nature of Physical Theory. Princeton University Press, New York (1936)

    Google Scholar 

  32. Eco, U.: Kant and the Platypus. Essays on Language and Cognition. Vintage, London (2000)

    Google Scholar 

  33. Quine, W.V.O.: Empirical content. In: Quine, W.V.O. (ed.) Theories and Things, pp. 24–30. Harvad University Press, Cambridge (1981)

    Google Scholar 

  34. Quine, W.V.O.: Word and object, 24th pr. edn. MIT Press, Cambridge (2001)

    Google Scholar 

  35. Grice, H.: Logic and conversation. In: Cole, P., Morgan, J.L. (eds.) Speech acts. Syntax and Semantics, vol. 3, pp. 41–58. Academic Press, New York (1975)

    Google Scholar 

  36. Quine, W.V.O.: The Roots of Reference. Open Court Publishing, LaSalle, Ill (1973)

    Google Scholar 

  37. Putnam, H.: Reason, Truth and History. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1981)

    Google Scholar 

  38. Searle, J.R.: Social ontology: Some basic principles. Anthropological Theory 6, 12–29 (2006)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  39. Jackendoff, R.: What is a concept, that a person grasp it? In: Languages of the Mind: Essays on Mental Representation, pp. 21–52. The MIT Press, Cambridge (1993)

    Google Scholar 

  40. Sloman, A.: Interactions between philosophy and artificial intelligence: The role of intuition and non-logical reasoning in intelligence. Artificial Intelligence 2, 209–225 (1971)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  41. Palmer, S.E.: Fundamental aspects of cognitive representation. In: Rosch, E., Lloyd, B. (eds.) Cognition and Categorization, pp. 259–303. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale NJ (1978)

    Google Scholar 

  42. Suppes, P., Zinnes, J.L.: Basic measurement theory. In: Luce, R.D. (ed.) Handbook of mathematical psychology, ch. 1-8, vol. 1, pp. 1–76. Wiley, New York (1967)

    Google Scholar 

  43. Kuhn, W.: Semantic reference systems. Int. J. Geogr. Inf. Science 17(5), 405–409 (2003)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  44. Gibson, J.J.: The ecological approach to visual perception. Houghton Mifflin, Boston (1979)

    Google Scholar 

  45. Scheider, S., Janowicz, K., Kuhn, W.: Grounding geographic categories in the meaningful environment. In: Hornsby, K.S., Claramunt, C., Denis, M., Ligozat, G. (eds.) COSIT 2009. LNCS, vol. 5756, pp. 69–87. Springer, Berlin (2009)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Geoinformatics, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Weseler Strasse 253, D-48151, Münster, Germany

    Simon Scheider

Authors
  1. Simon Scheider
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, 16802, PA, USA

    Krzysztof Janowicz

  2. Department of Geography, University of California, Santa Barbara, 93106, CA, USA

    Martin Raubal

  3. Centro de Investigacion en Computacion, National Polytechnic Institute, 07738, Mexico City, Mexico

    Sergei Levashkin

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Scheider, S. (2009). The Case for Grounding Databases. In: Janowicz, K., Raubal, M., Levashkin, S. (eds) GeoSpatial Semantics. GeoS 2009. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 5892. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-10436-7_4

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-10436-7_4

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-10435-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-10436-7

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation