ABSTRACT
Despite the fact that spatial expressions are an important topic in cognitive science, route descriptions, produced in everyday communication situations, have not been studied much so far. Yet they are a real challenge from a linguistic as well as a cognitive science point of view, as they involve specific forms of representation. This chapter deals with the generation of “mental maps” from route descriptions. Mental maps constitute the final stage of the understanding process and are simulated by graphic sketches. Some problems concerning text-to-image translation of route descriptions are discussed. We present our processing model and the underlying knowledge representation, as well as the relevant cognitive background.
