ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we consider early approaches to spatial prepositions that have focused on mapping language onto spatial relations in the (real or imaginary) world being described. We will begin with the assumption that spatial language refers in some way to the geometric relations between the objects under consideration, and will show how this assumption has played its part in fuelling debates in the literature about how many senses of a word need to be recognised in the mental lexicon. By the end of the chapter, we hope to convince you that comprehension and production of spatial language is underdetermined by geometric relations, and we will lay the foundations for a somewhat different type of account that we develop in the rest of the book.
