ISO 24617-7:2014
(Main)Language resource management — Semantic annotation framework — Part 7: Spatial information (ISOspace)
Language resource management — Semantic annotation framework — Part 7: Spatial information (ISOspace)
ISO 24617-7:2014 provides a framework for encoding a broad range not only of spatial information, but also of spatiotemporal information relating to motion as expressed in natural language texts. It includes references to locations, general spatial entities, spatial relations (involving topological, orientational, and metric values), dimensional information, motion events, and paths.
Gestion des ressources linguistiques — Cadre d'annotation sémantique — Partie 7: Information spatiale (ISOspace)
Upravljanje z jezikovnimi viri - Ogrodje za semantično označevanje (SemAF) - 7. del: Prostorske informacije (ISOspace)
Ta del standarda ISO 24617 določa ogrodje za kodiranje širokega razpona ne samo prostorskih informacij, ampak tudi časovno vrsto, ki se nanaša na gibanje, kot je izraženo v besedilnih naravnega jezika. Ta del standarda ISO 24617 zajema sklice na lokacije, splošne prostorske enote, prostorske odnose (ki zajemajo topološke, orientacijske in metrične vrednosti), podatke o merah, dogodke premikanja in poti.
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SLOVENSKI STANDARD
SIST ISO 24617-7:2018
01-september-2018
Upravljanje z jezikovnimi viri - Ogrodje za semantično označevanje (SemAF) - 7.
del: Prostorske informacije (ISOspace)
Language resource management -- Semantic annotation framework -- Part 7: Spatial
information (ISOspace)
Gestion des ressources linguistiques -- Cadre d'annotation sémantique -- Partie 7:
Information spatiale (ISOspace)
Ta slovenski standard je istoveten z: ISO 24617-7:2014
ICS:
01.020 Terminologija (načela in Terminology (principles and
koordinacija) coordination)
01.140.20 Informacijske vede Information sciences
35.240.30 Uporabniške rešitve IT v IT applications in information,
informatiki, dokumentiranju in documentation and
založništvu publishing
SIST ISO 24617-7:2018 en,fr,de
2003-01.Slovenski inštitut za standardizacijo. Razmnoževanje celote ali delov tega standarda ni dovoljeno.
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SIST ISO 24617-7:2018
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SIST ISO 24617-7:2018
INTERNATIONAL ISO
STANDARD 24617-7
First edition
2014-12-15
Language resource management —
Semantic annotation framework —
Part 7:
Spatial information (ISOspace)
Gestion des ressources linguistiques — Cadre d’annotation
sémantique —
Partie 7: Information spatiale (ISOspace)
Reference number
ISO 24617-7:2014(E)
©
ISO 2014
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SIST ISO 24617-7:2018
ISO 24617-7:2014(E)
COPYRIGHT PROTECTED DOCUMENT
© ISO 2014
All rights reserved. Unless otherwise specified, no part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized otherwise in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, or posting on the internet or an intranet, without prior
written permission. Permission can be requested from either ISO at the address below or ISO’s member body in the country of
the requester.
ISO copyright office
Case postale 56 • CH-1211 Geneva 20
Tel. + 41 22 749 01 11
Fax + 41 22 749 09 47
E-mail copyright@iso.org
Web www.iso.org
Published in Switzerland
ii © ISO 2014 – All rights reserved
---------------------- Page: 4 ----------------------
SIST ISO 24617-7:2018
ISO 24617-7:2014(E)
Contents Page
Foreword .iv
Introduction .v
1 Scope . 1
2 Normative references . 1
3 Terms and definitions . 1
4 List of tags . 4
5 Overview . 5
6 Motivation and requirements . 6
7 Specification of ISOspace for spatial annotation . 7
7.1 Overview: annotation vs. representation. 7
7.2 Abstract syntax for the ISOspace annotation structure . 7
8 Representation of ISOspace-conformant annotations . 8
8.1 XML-based concrete syntax: outline . 8
8.1.1 Overview . 8
8.1.2 Basic entitles . 9
8.1.3 Signals . 9
8.1.4 Links . 9
8.1.5 Root element . 9
8.2 Conventions for tagging . 9
8.2.1 Naming conventions . 9
8.2.2 Convention for inline tagging extents .10
8.3 Basic entity tags .11
8.3.1 .11
8.3.2 .13
8.3.3 .13
8.3.4 .14
8.3.5 for non-motion event .15
8.3.6 .15
8.3.7 .16
8.3.8 .16
8.4 Link tags .17
8.4.1 .17
8.4.2 .17
8.4.3 .18
8.4.4 .20
8.5 Root tag: .20
8.6 Summary .21
8.6.1 Identifier .21
8.6.2 Shared attributes .22
8.6.3 IDRef as value .23
Annex A (normative) Core annotation guidelines .24
Bibliography .52
© ISO 2014 – All rights reserved iii
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ISO 24617-7:2014(E)
Foreword
ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) is a worldwide federation of national standards
bodies (ISO member bodies). The work of preparing International Standards is normally carried out
through ISO technical committees. Each member body interested in a subject for which a technical
committee has been established has the right to be represented on that committee. International
organizations, governmental and non-governmental, in liaison with ISO, also take part in the work.
ISO collaborates closely with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) on all matters of
electrotechnical standardization.
The procedures used to develop this document and those intended for its further maintenance are
described in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1. In particular the different approval criteria needed for the
different types of ISO documents should be noted. This document was drafted in accordance with the
editorial rules of the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2 (see www.iso.org/directives).
Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of
patent rights. ISO shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights. Details of any
patent rights identified during the development of the document will be in the Introduction and/or on
the ISO list of patent declarations received (see www.iso.org/patents).
Any trade name used in this document is information given for the convenience of users and does not
constitute an endorsement.
For an explanation on the meaning of ISO specific terms and expressions related to conformity
assessment, as well as information about ISO’s adherence to the WTO principles in the Technical Barriers
to Trade (TBT) see the following URL: Foreword - Supplementary information
The committee responsible for this document is ISO/TC 37, Terminology and other language and content
resources, Subcommittee SC 4, Language resource management.
ISO 24617 consists of the following parts, under the general title Language resource management —
Semantic annotation framework (semAF):
— Part 1: Time and events (SemAF-Time, ISO-TimeML)
— Part 2: Dialogue acts
— Part 4: Semantic roles (SemAF-SR)
— Part 5: Discourse structures (SemAF-DS)
— Part 6: Principles of semantic annotation (SemAF-Basics)
— Part 7: Spatial information (ISOspace)
— Part 8: Semantic relations in discourse (SemAF-DRel)
iv © ISO 2014 – All rights reserved
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Introduction
The automatic recognition of spatial information in natural language is currently attracting considerable
attention in the fields of computational linguistics and artificial intelligence. The development of
algorithms that exhibit “spatial awareness” promises to add needed functionality to NLP systems, from
named entity recognition to question-answering and text-based inference. However, in order for such
systems to reason spatially, they require the enrichment of textual data with the annotation of spatial
information in language. This involves a large range of linguistic constructions, including spatially
anchoring events, descriptions of objects in motion, viewer-relative descriptions of scenes, absolute
spatial descriptions of locations, and many other constructions.
This part of ISO 24617 was developed in collaboration with the ISOspace working group at Brandeis
University with the aim to provide an International Standard for the representation of spatial information
relating to locations, motions and non-motion events in language.
NOTE The ISOspace Working Group is headed by James Pustejovsky, jampesp@cs.brandeis.edu, Brandeis
University, Waltham, MA, U.S.A.
This part of ISO 24617 provides normative specifications and guidelines not only for spatial information,
but also for information content in motion and various other types of event in language.
The main parts of this part of ISO 24617 consist of the following:
a) Scope;
b) Normative references;
c) Terms and definitions;
d) List of tags or names of elements;
e) Overview;
f) Motivation and requirements;
g) Specification of the ISOspace annotation structure;
h) Representation of ISOspace-conformant annotations.
Clause 8 introduces an XML-based concrete syntax for representing spatial-related or motion-related
annotations based on the annotation structure of ISOspace that is presented in Clause 7 with a UML-
based metamodel.
A formal semantics for ISOspace will be provided as part of a future new work item within the semantic
annotation framework. This will be coordinated with the temporal semantics and specification of
ISO 24617-1 (SemAF-Time, ISO-TimeML), thereby producing a rich semantics that will be directly useable
by practitioners in computational linguistics and other communities (see Clause 6). The multilingual
extension of ISOspace will also be treated in a separate part of the ISO 24617- series in the near future.
NOTE Although the schema and DTD are not part of the present document as normative annexes, they will
both be found in a webpage relating to the ISOspace specification.
Normative Annex A is an integral part of ISO 24617 and provides core annotation guidelines.
© ISO 2014 – All rights reserved v
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SIST ISO 24617-7:2018
INTERNATIONAL STANDARD ISO 24617-7:2014(E)
Language resource management — Semantic annotation
framework —
Part 7:
Spatial information (ISOspace)
1 Scope
This part of ISO 24617 provides a framework for encoding a broad range not only of spatial information,
but also of spatiotemporal information relating to motion as expressed in natural language texts. This
part of ISO 24617 includes references to locations, general spatial entities, spatial relations (involving
topological, orientational, and metric values), dimensional information, motion events, and paths.
2 Normative references
The following documents, in whole or in part, are normatively referenced in this document and are
indispensable for its application. For dated references, only the edition cited applies. For undated
references, the latest edition of the referenced document (including any amendments) applies.
ISO 24617-1, Language resource management — Semantic annotation framework (SemAF) — Part 1: Time
and events (SemAF-Time, ISO-TimeML)
ISO/IEC 14977, Information technology — Syntactic metalanguage — Extended BNF
3 Terms and definitions
For the purposes of this document, the terms and definitions given in ISO 24617-1 and the following apply.
3.1
document creation location
dcl
unique place or set of places associated with a document that represents the location (3.7) in which the
document was created
1)
Note 1 to entry: Some collaboratively written documents, such as GoogleDoc documents and chat logs, might
refer not only to a single location but also to a set of locations spread out across the world. Besides, for example,
the creation place of the Hebrew bible or the creation place of each of the books in it is uncertain. The attribute @
dcl will, therefore, have the value “false” which is to be understood to mean “unspecified”, while the value “true”
is to be understood to mean “specified”.
3.2
event
eventuality
something that can be said to obtain or hold true, to happen or to occur
Note 1 to entry: This is a very broad notion of event, also known in the literature as “eventuality” and includes all
kinds of actions, states, processes, etc. It is not to be confused with the narrower notion of event (as opposed to
the notion of “state”) as something that happens at a certain point in time (e.g. the clock striking two or waking
up) or during a short period of time (e.g. laughing). In ISO-TimeML, the term event is used in a broader sense and
is equivalent to the term eventuality.
1) GoogleDoc is an example of a suitable product available commercially. This information is given for the
convenience of users of this document and does not constitute an endorsement by ISO of these products.
© ISO 2014 – All rights reserved 1
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[SOURCE: ISO 24617-1:2012]
3.3
event-path
path (3.13) or trajectory followed by a spatial entity (3.17) coincident with a motion-event (3.9)
3.4
extent
textual segment which is string of character segments in text to be annotated
EXAMPLE Tokens, words, and non-contiguous phrases (e.g. a complex verb like “look . up”) are extents.
3.5
figure
spatial entity (3.17) that is considered to be the focal object, which is related to some reference object
3.6
ground
spatial entity (3.17) that acts as reference for a figure (3.5)
3.7
location
point or finite area that is positioned within a space (3.16)
3.8
measure
magnitude of a spatial dimension or relation
EXAMPLE Distance is a spatial relation.
3.9
motion
motion-event
action or process involving the translocation of a spatial object, transformation of some spatial property
of an object, or change in the conformation of an object
Note 1 to entry: A motion (3.9) in ISOspace is a particular kind of event (3.2).
3.10
motion-signal
adjunct
motion-adjunct
path (3.13) of motion and/or manner of motion information contributed by a particle or by a prepositional,
adverbial phrase, in conjunction with a motion (3.9)-related text
Note 1 to entry: This terminology is specific to ISOspace and is different from the general term “adjunct” which is
used to describe optional syntactic elements.
3.11
non-cosuming tag
tag (3.19) that has no associated extent (3.4)
Note 1 to entry: The extent (3.4) of a non-consuming tag is a “null” string.
EXAMPLE In John ate an apple but Mary a pear, there are at least two ways of marking up the non-
consuming tag:
a) John ate an apple, but Mary ∅ a pear;
e1 e2
b) 1)
2) (non-consuming tag)
2 © ISO 2014 – All rights reserved
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3.12
orientation
orientation(al) relation
relation between a figure (3.5) and a ground (3.6) that expresses the spatial disposition or direction of a
spatial object within a frame of reference
3.13
path
location (3.7) that consists of a series of locations (3.7)
Note 1 to entry: A spatial object path is a location where the focus is on the potential for traversal or which
functions as a boundary. This includes common nouns like road, coastline, and river and proper names like Route
66 and Kangamangus Highway. Some nouns, such as valley, can be ambiguous. It can be understood as a path in we
walked down the valley or as a place (3.14) in we live in the valley.
Note 2 to entry: A path might be represented as an undirected graph whose vertices are locations (3.7) and whose
edges signify continuity; that is to say, a path has no inherent directionality.
3.14
place
geographic or administrative entity that is situated at a location (3.7)
3.15
region
connected, non-empty point-set defined by a domain and its boundary points
Note 1 to entry: The term “region” as defined here does not refer to a political or administrative region such as
“the Canary Islands” or “Hong Kong, SAR”, where SAR is the acronym of “Special Administrative Region”.
3.16
space
dimensional extent in which objects and events (3.2) have a relative position and direction
3.17
spatial entity
object that is situated at a unique location (3.7) for some period of time, and typically has the potential
to undergo translocation
Note 1 to entry: A spatial entity can also be understood as an object that participates in a spatial relation. In John is
sitting in a car, both John and car could be understood as spatial entities or as being the figure (3.5) and the ground
(3.6), respectively, of the sitting-in situation.
3.18
spatial signal
segment or series of segments of a text that rebounds to orientational (3.12) or topological relations (3.20)
3.19
tag
element name
name associated with textual segments for annotation or for a relation between these segments
Note 1 to entry: The following are two kinds of tag for annotation:
a) extent tag, which is associated with textual segments referring to basic entities or signals;
b) link tag, for representing spatial relations.
3.20
topological relation
relation that expresses the connectedness or continuity of spaces (3.16)
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4 List of tags
4.1 General
The tag in angled brackets stands for the name of an XML element. See 8.2.
4.2 Extent tags: Basic entities and signals
4.2.1
measure
extent tag representing some measure (3.8)
4.2.2
motion
extent tag representing a motion (3.9)
4.2.3
motionSignal
extent tag representing a motion-signal (3.10)
4.2.4
non-motion event
extent tag representing a non-motion event (3.9)
4.2.5
path
extent tag that represents a path (3.13)
4.2.6
place
extent tag that represents a place (3.14)
4.2.7
spatialEntity
extent tag that represents a spatial entity (3.17)
4.2.8
spatialSignal
extent tag that represents a spatial signal (3.18)
4.3 Link tags
4.3.1
mLink
linking tag that represents some measure (3.8)
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4.3.2
moveLink
linking tag that represents a relation between a motion (3.9) and participant spatial entities (3.17)
4.3.3
oLink
linking tag that represents an orientation relation (3.12) between a figure (3.5) and a ground (3.6)
4.3.4
qsLink
linking tag that represents a topological relation (3.20)
NOTE The tag qsLink or stands for a qualitative spatial link.
4.4 Root element
4.4.1
isoSpace
root element in which all ISOspace tags are embedded
NOTE In ISOspace annotations, all of the extent and link tags listed above are embedded in the tag .
5 Overview
Human languages impose diverse linguistic constructions for expressing concepts of space, of spatially-
anchored events, and of spatial configurations that relate in complex ways to the situations in which
they are used. One area that deserves further development regarding the connection between natural
language and formal representations of space is the automatic enrichment of textual data with spatial
annotations. There is a growing demand for such annotated data, particularly in the context of the
semantic web. Moreover, textual data routinely make reference to objects moving through space over
time. Integrating such information derived from textual sources into a geosensor data system can enhance
the overall spatiotemporal representation in changing and evolving situations, such as when tracking
objects through space with limited image data. It follows that verbal subjective descriptions of spatial
relations need to be translated into metrically meaningful positional information. A central research
question currently hindering progress in interpreting textual data is the lack of a clear separation of
the information that can be derived directly from linguistic interpretation and further information that
requires contextual interpretation. In order to avoid building incorrect deductions into the annotations
themselves, mark-up schemes should avoid over-annotating the text. Solutions to the language-space
mapping problem and its grounding in geospatial data are urgently required for this purpose.
There are many applications and tasks that would benefit from a robust spatial mark-up language, such
as ISOspace. These applications and tasks include the following:
a) creating a visualization of objects from a verbal description of a scene;
b) identifying the spatial relations associated with a sequence of processes and events from a news article;
c) determining an object location or tracking a moving object from a verbal description;
d) translating viewer-centric verbal descriptions into other relative descriptions or absolute coordinate
descriptions;
e) constructing a route given a route description;
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ISO 24617-7:2014(E)
f) constructing a spatial model of an interior or exterior space given a verbal description;
g) integrating spatial descriptions with information from other media.
The goal of ISOspace is not to provide a formalism that fully represents the complexity of spatial
language but rather to capture these complex constructions in text in order to provide an inventory
of how spatial information is presented in natural language. For example, many texts have no explicit
frame of spatio-temporal reference, thus, making it impossible to annotate such an unspecified frame
of reference. The interpretation of spatial prepositions, such as on in a book on the desk vs a picture on
the wall requires a handbook of its own dealing with different senses or uses of spatial prepositions
beyond a set of annotation guidelines. Any detailed classification of motion verbs in English alone is
again beyond the scope of this International Standard.
All of the examples in the current version of part of ISO 24617 are from English datasets. The specification
language proposed in this International Standard can be seen as a version of ISOspace for English only
and its applicability to other languages is still pending. A multilingual extension of ISOspace is necessary
if the document is to be verified, but this is expected to immediately follow preliminary rigorous work
on establishing the first edition of this part of ISO 24617 as an International Standard for spatial and
motion-related annotation.
6 Motivation and requirements
This International Standard aims to formulate the requirements for spatiotemporal annotation
standards and to develop the ISOspace standard to meet these requirements. It assumes ISO 24612 and
builds on previous work, including ISO 24617-1 and other spatial representations and calculi.
Natural language abounds with descriptions of motion. Our experience of our own motion, together
with our perception of motion in the world, have given human languages substantial means to verbally
express many different aspects of movement, including its temporal circumstances, spatial trajectory and
manner. In every language on earth, verbalizations of motion can specify changes in the spatial position
of an object over time. In addition to when and where the motion takes place, languages additionally
characterize how the motion takes place (e.g., its path, its manner, and how it was caused). In particular,
the path of motion involves conceptualizations of the various spatial relationships that an object can
have to other objects in the space in which it moves. An understanding of such spatial information in
natural language is necessary for many computational linguistics and artificial intelligence applications.
Any specification language for spatial information in language will need to support the following
computational tas
...
SLOVENSKI STANDARD
SIST ISO 24617-7:2018
01-september-2018
Upravljanje z jezikovnimi viri - Ogrodje za semantično označevanje (SemAF) - 7.
del: Prostorske informacije (ISOspace)
Language resource management -- Semantic annotation framework -- Part 7: Spatial
information (ISOspace)
Gestion des ressources linguistiques -- Cadre d'annotation sémantique -- Partie 7:
Information spatiale (ISOspace)
Ta slovenski standard je istoveten z: ISO 24617-7:2014
ICS:
01.020 Terminologija (načela in Terminology (principles and
koordinacija) coordination)
35.240.30 Uporabniške rešitve IT v IT applications in information,
informatiki, dokumentiranju in documentation and
založništvu publishing
SIST ISO 24617-7:2018 en,fr,de
2003-01.Slovenski inštitut za standardizacijo. Razmnoževanje celote ali delov tega standarda ni dovoljeno.
---------------------- Page: 1 ----------------------
SIST ISO 24617-7:2018
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SIST ISO 24617-7:2018
INTERNATIONAL ISO
STANDARD 24617-7
First edition
2014-12-15
Language resource management —
Semantic annotation framework —
Part 7:
Spatial information (ISOspace)
Gestion des ressources linguistiques — Cadre d’annotation
sémantique —
Partie 7: Information spatiale (ISOspace)
Reference number
ISO 24617-7:2014(E)
©
ISO 2014
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SIST ISO 24617-7:2018
ISO 24617-7:2014(E)
COPYRIGHT PROTECTED DOCUMENT
© ISO 2014
All rights reserved. Unless otherwise specified, no part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized otherwise in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, or posting on the internet or an intranet, without prior
written permission. Permission can be requested from either ISO at the address below or ISO’s member body in the country of
the requester.
ISO copyright office
Case postale 56 • CH-1211 Geneva 20
Tel. + 41 22 749 01 11
Fax + 41 22 749 09 47
E-mail copyright@iso.org
Web www.iso.org
Published in Switzerland
ii © ISO 2014 – All rights reserved
---------------------- Page: 4 ----------------------
SIST ISO 24617-7:2018
ISO 24617-7:2014(E)
Contents Page
Foreword .iv
Introduction .v
1 Scope . 1
2 Normative references . 1
3 Terms and definitions . 1
4 List of tags . 4
5 Overview . 5
6 Motivation and requirements . 6
7 Specification of ISOspace for spatial annotation . 7
7.1 Overview: annotation vs. representation. 7
7.2 Abstract syntax for the ISOspace annotation structure . 7
8 Representation of ISOspace-conformant annotations . 8
8.1 XML-based concrete syntax: outline . 8
8.1.1 Overview . 8
8.1.2 Basic entitles . 9
8.1.3 Signals . 9
8.1.4 Links . 9
8.1.5 Root element . 9
8.2 Conventions for tagging . 9
8.2.1 Naming conventions . 9
8.2.2 Convention for inline tagging extents .10
8.3 Basic entity tags .11
8.3.1 .11
8.3.2 .13
8.3.3 .13
8.3.4 .14
8.3.5 for non-motion event .15
8.3.6 .15
8.3.7 .16
8.3.8 .16
8.4 Link tags .17
8.4.1 .17
8.4.2 .17
8.4.3 .18
8.4.4 .20
8.5 Root tag: .20
8.6 Summary .21
8.6.1 Identifier .21
8.6.2 Shared attributes .22
8.6.3 IDRef as value .23
Annex A (normative) Core annotation guidelines .24
Bibliography .52
© ISO 2014 – All rights reserved iii
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Foreword
ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) is a worldwide federation of national standards
bodies (ISO member bodies). The work of preparing International Standards is normally carried out
through ISO technical committees. Each member body interested in a subject for which a technical
committee has been established has the right to be represented on that committee. International
organizations, governmental and non-governmental, in liaison with ISO, also take part in the work.
ISO collaborates closely with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) on all matters of
electrotechnical standardization.
The procedures used to develop this document and those intended for its further maintenance are
described in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1. In particular the different approval criteria needed for the
different types of ISO documents should be noted. This document was drafted in accordance with the
editorial rules of the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2 (see www.iso.org/directives).
Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of
patent rights. ISO shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights. Details of any
patent rights identified during the development of the document will be in the Introduction and/or on
the ISO list of patent declarations received (see www.iso.org/patents).
Any trade name used in this document is information given for the convenience of users and does not
constitute an endorsement.
For an explanation on the meaning of ISO specific terms and expressions related to conformity
assessment, as well as information about ISO’s adherence to the WTO principles in the Technical Barriers
to Trade (TBT) see the following URL: Foreword - Supplementary information
The committee responsible for this document is ISO/TC 37, Terminology and other language and content
resources, Subcommittee SC 4, Language resource management.
ISO 24617 consists of the following parts, under the general title Language resource management —
Semantic annotation framework (semAF):
— Part 1: Time and events (SemAF-Time, ISO-TimeML)
— Part 2: Dialogue acts
— Part 4: Semantic roles (SemAF-SR)
— Part 5: Discourse structures (SemAF-DS)
— Part 6: Principles of semantic annotation (SemAF-Basics)
— Part 7: Spatial information (ISOspace)
— Part 8: Semantic relations in discourse (SemAF-DRel)
iv © ISO 2014 – All rights reserved
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Introduction
The automatic recognition of spatial information in natural language is currently attracting considerable
attention in the fields of computational linguistics and artificial intelligence. The development of
algorithms that exhibit “spatial awareness” promises to add needed functionality to NLP systems, from
named entity recognition to question-answering and text-based inference. However, in order for such
systems to reason spatially, they require the enrichment of textual data with the annotation of spatial
information in language. This involves a large range of linguistic constructions, including spatially
anchoring events, descriptions of objects in motion, viewer-relative descriptions of scenes, absolute
spatial descriptions of locations, and many other constructions.
This part of ISO 24617 was developed in collaboration with the ISOspace working group at Brandeis
University with the aim to provide an International Standard for the representation of spatial information
relating to locations, motions and non-motion events in language.
NOTE The ISOspace Working Group is headed by James Pustejovsky, jampesp@cs.brandeis.edu, Brandeis
University, Waltham, MA, U.S.A.
This part of ISO 24617 provides normative specifications and guidelines not only for spatial information,
but also for information content in motion and various other types of event in language.
The main parts of this part of ISO 24617 consist of the following:
a) Scope;
b) Normative references;
c) Terms and definitions;
d) List of tags or names of elements;
e) Overview;
f) Motivation and requirements;
g) Specification of the ISOspace annotation structure;
h) Representation of ISOspace-conformant annotations.
Clause 8 introduces an XML-based concrete syntax for representing spatial-related or motion-related
annotations based on the annotation structure of ISOspace that is presented in Clause 7 with a UML-
based metamodel.
A formal semantics for ISOspace will be provided as part of a future new work item within the semantic
annotation framework. This will be coordinated with the temporal semantics and specification of
ISO 24617-1 (SemAF-Time, ISO-TimeML), thereby producing a rich semantics that will be directly useable
by practitioners in computational linguistics and other communities (see Clause 6). The multilingual
extension of ISOspace will also be treated in a separate part of the ISO 24617- series in the near future.
NOTE Although the schema and DTD are not part of the present document as normative annexes, they will
both be found in a webpage relating to the ISOspace specification.
Normative Annex A is an integral part of ISO 24617 and provides core annotation guidelines.
© ISO 2014 – All rights reserved v
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SIST ISO 24617-7:2018
INTERNATIONAL STANDARD ISO 24617-7:2014(E)
Language resource management — Semantic annotation
framework —
Part 7:
Spatial information (ISOspace)
1 Scope
This part of ISO 24617 provides a framework for encoding a broad range not only of spatial information,
but also of spatiotemporal information relating to motion as expressed in natural language texts. This
part of ISO 24617 includes references to locations, general spatial entities, spatial relations (involving
topological, orientational, and metric values), dimensional information, motion events, and paths.
2 Normative references
The following documents, in whole or in part, are normatively referenced in this document and are
indispensable for its application. For dated references, only the edition cited applies. For undated
references, the latest edition of the referenced document (including any amendments) applies.
ISO 24617-1, Language resource management — Semantic annotation framework (SemAF) — Part 1: Time
and events (SemAF-Time, ISO-TimeML)
ISO/IEC 14977, Information technology — Syntactic metalanguage — Extended BNF
3 Terms and definitions
For the purposes of this document, the terms and definitions given in ISO 24617-1 and the following apply.
3.1
document creation location
dcl
unique place or set of places associated with a document that represents the location (3.7) in which the
document was created
1)
Note 1 to entry: Some collaboratively written documents, such as GoogleDoc documents and chat logs, might
refer not only to a single location but also to a set of locations spread out across the world. Besides, for example,
the creation place of the Hebrew bible or the creation place of each of the books in it is uncertain. The attribute @
dcl will, therefore, have the value “false” which is to be understood to mean “unspecified”, while the value “true”
is to be understood to mean “specified”.
3.2
event
eventuality
something that can be said to obtain or hold true, to happen or to occur
Note 1 to entry: This is a very broad notion of event, also known in the literature as “eventuality” and includes all
kinds of actions, states, processes, etc. It is not to be confused with the narrower notion of event (as opposed to
the notion of “state”) as something that happens at a certain point in time (e.g. the clock striking two or waking
up) or during a short period of time (e.g. laughing). In ISO-TimeML, the term event is used in a broader sense and
is equivalent to the term eventuality.
1) GoogleDoc is an example of a suitable product available commercially. This information is given for the
convenience of users of this document and does not constitute an endorsement by ISO of these products.
© ISO 2014 – All rights reserved 1
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[SOURCE: ISO 24617-1:2012]
3.3
event-path
path (3.13) or trajectory followed by a spatial entity (3.17) coincident with a motion-event (3.9)
3.4
extent
textual segment which is string of character segments in text to be annotated
EXAMPLE Tokens, words, and non-contiguous phrases (e.g. a complex verb like “look . up”) are extents.
3.5
figure
spatial entity (3.17) that is considered to be the focal object, which is related to some reference object
3.6
ground
spatial entity (3.17) that acts as reference for a figure (3.5)
3.7
location
point or finite area that is positioned within a space (3.16)
3.8
measure
magnitude of a spatial dimension or relation
EXAMPLE Distance is a spatial relation.
3.9
motion
motion-event
action or process involving the translocation of a spatial object, transformation of some spatial property
of an object, or change in the conformation of an object
Note 1 to entry: A motion (3.9) in ISOspace is a particular kind of event (3.2).
3.10
motion-signal
adjunct
motion-adjunct
path (3.13) of motion and/or manner of motion information contributed by a particle or by a prepositional,
adverbial phrase, in conjunction with a motion (3.9)-related text
Note 1 to entry: This terminology is specific to ISOspace and is different from the general term “adjunct” which is
used to describe optional syntactic elements.
3.11
non-cosuming tag
tag (3.19) that has no associated extent (3.4)
Note 1 to entry: The extent (3.4) of a non-consuming tag is a “null” string.
EXAMPLE In John ate an apple but Mary a pear, there are at least two ways of marking up the non-
consuming tag:
a) John ate an apple, but Mary ∅ a pear;
e1 e2
b) 1)
2) (non-consuming tag)
2 © ISO 2014 – All rights reserved
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3.12
orientation
orientation(al) relation
relation between a figure (3.5) and a ground (3.6) that expresses the spatial disposition or direction of a
spatial object within a frame of reference
3.13
path
location (3.7) that consists of a series of locations (3.7)
Note 1 to entry: A spatial object path is a location where the focus is on the potential for traversal or which
functions as a boundary. This includes common nouns like road, coastline, and river and proper names like Route
66 and Kangamangus Highway. Some nouns, such as valley, can be ambiguous. It can be understood as a path in we
walked down the valley or as a place (3.14) in we live in the valley.
Note 2 to entry: A path might be represented as an undirected graph whose vertices are locations (3.7) and whose
edges signify continuity; that is to say, a path has no inherent directionality.
3.14
place
geographic or administrative entity that is situated at a location (3.7)
3.15
region
connected, non-empty point-set defined by a domain and its boundary points
Note 1 to entry: The term “region” as defined here does not refer to a political or administrative region such as
“the Canary Islands” or “Hong Kong, SAR”, where SAR is the acronym of “Special Administrative Region”.
3.16
space
dimensional extent in which objects and events (3.2) have a relative position and direction
3.17
spatial entity
object that is situated at a unique location (3.7) for some period of time, and typically has the potential
to undergo translocation
Note 1 to entry: A spatial entity can also be understood as an object that participates in a spatial relation. In John is
sitting in a car, both John and car could be understood as spatial entities or as being the figure (3.5) and the ground
(3.6), respectively, of the sitting-in situation.
3.18
spatial signal
segment or series of segments of a text that rebounds to orientational (3.12) or topological relations (3.20)
3.19
tag
element name
name associated with textual segments for annotation or for a relation between these segments
Note 1 to entry: The following are two kinds of tag for annotation:
a) extent tag, which is associated with textual segments referring to basic entities or signals;
b) link tag, for representing spatial relations.
3.20
topological relation
relation that expresses the connectedness or continuity of spaces (3.16)
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4 List of tags
4.1 General
The tag in angled brackets stands for the name of an XML element. See 8.2.
4.2 Extent tags: Basic entities and signals
4.2.1
measure
extent tag representing some measure (3.8)
4.2.2
motion
extent tag representing a motion (3.9)
4.2.3
motionSignal
extent tag representing a motion-signal (3.10)
4.2.4
non-motion event
extent tag representing a non-motion event (3.9)
4.2.5
path
extent tag that represents a path (3.13)
4.2.6
place
extent tag that represents a place (3.14)
4.2.7
spatialEntity
extent tag that represents a spatial entity (3.17)
4.2.8
spatialSignal
extent tag that represents a spatial signal (3.18)
4.3 Link tags
4.3.1
mLink
linking tag that represents some measure (3.8)
4 © ISO 2014 – All rights reserved
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4.3.2
moveLink
linking tag that represents a relation between a motion (3.9) and participant spatial entities (3.17)
4.3.3
oLink
linking tag that represents an orientation relation (3.12) between a figure (3.5) and a ground (3.6)
4.3.4
qsLink
linking tag that represents a topological relation (3.20)
NOTE The tag qsLink or stands for a qualitative spatial link.
4.4 Root element
4.4.1
isoSpace
root element in which all ISOspace tags are embedded
NOTE In ISOspace annotations, all of the extent and link tags listed above are embedded in the tag .
5 Overview
Human languages impose diverse linguistic constructions for expressing concepts of space, of spatially-
anchored events, and of spatial configurations that relate in complex ways to the situations in which
they are used. One area that deserves further development regarding the connection between natural
language and formal representations of space is the automatic enrichment of textual data with spatial
annotations. There is a growing demand for such annotated data, particularly in the context of the
semantic web. Moreover, textual data routinely make reference to objects moving through space over
time. Integrating such information derived from textual sources into a geosensor data system can enhance
the overall spatiotemporal representation in changing and evolving situations, such as when tracking
objects through space with limited image data. It follows that verbal subjective descriptions of spatial
relations need to be translated into metrically meaningful positional information. A central research
question currently hindering progress in interpreting textual data is the lack of a clear separation of
the information that can be derived directly from linguistic interpretation and further information that
requires contextual interpretation. In order to avoid building incorrect deductions into the annotations
themselves, mark-up schemes should avoid over-annotating the text. Solutions to the language-space
mapping problem and its grounding in geospatial data are urgently required for this purpose.
There are many applications and tasks that would benefit from a robust spatial mark-up language, such
as ISOspace. These applications and tasks include the following:
a) creating a visualization of objects from a verbal description of a scene;
b) identifying the spatial relations associated with a sequence of processes and events from a news article;
c) determining an object location or tracking a moving object from a verbal description;
d) translating viewer-centric verbal descriptions into other relative descriptions or absolute coordinate
descriptions;
e) constructing a route given a route description;
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f) constructing a spatial model of an interior or exterior space given a verbal description;
g) integrating spatial descriptions with information from other media.
The goal of ISOspace is not to provide a formalism that fully represents the complexity of spatial
language but rather to capture these complex constructions in text in order to provide an inventory
of how spatial information is presented in natural language. For example, many texts have no explicit
frame of spatio-temporal reference, thus, making it impossible to annotate such an unspecified frame
of reference. The interpretation of spatial prepositions, such as on in a book on the desk vs a picture on
the wall requires a handbook of its own dealing with different senses or uses of spatial prepositions
beyond a set of annotation guidelines. Any detailed classification of motion verbs in English alone is
again beyond the scope of this International Standard.
All of the examples in the current version of part of ISO 24617 are from English datasets. The specification
language proposed in this International Standard can be seen as a version of ISOspace for English only
and its applicability to other languages is still pending. A multilingual extension of ISOspace is necessary
if the document is to be verified, but this is expected to immediately follow preliminary rigorous work
on establishing the first edition of this part of ISO 24617 as an International Standard for spatial and
motion-related annotation.
6 Motivation and requirements
This International Standard aims to formulate the requirements for spatiotemporal annotation
standards and to develop the ISOspace standard to meet these requirements. It assumes ISO 24612 and
builds on previous work, including ISO 24617-1 and other spatial representations and calculi.
Natural language abounds with descriptions of motion. Our experience of our own motion, together
with our perception of motion in the world, have given human languages substantial means to verbally
express many different aspects of movement, including its temporal circumstances, spatial trajectory and
manner. In every language on earth, verbalizations of motion can specify changes in the spatial position
of an object over time. In addition to when and where the motion takes place, languages additionally
characterize how the motion takes place (e.g., its path, its manner, and how it was caused). In particular,
the path of motion involves conceptualizations of the various spatial relationships that an object can
have to other objects in the space in which it moves. An understanding of such spatial information in
natural language is necessary for many computational linguistics and artificial intelligence applications.
Any specification language for spatial information in language will need to support the following
computational tasks:
— identification of the appropriate topologica
...
SLOVENSKI STANDARD
SIST ISO 24617-7:2018
01-september-2018
8SUDYOMDQMH]MH]LNRYQLPLYLUL2JURGMH]DVHPDQWLþQRR]QDþHYDQMH 6HP$)
GHO 3URVWRUVNHLQIRUPDFLMH ,62VSDFH
Language resource management -- Semantic annotation framework -- Part 7: Spatial
information (ISOspace)
Gestion des ressources linguistiques -- Cadre d'annotation sémantique -- Partie 7:
Information spatiale (ISOspace)
Ta slovenski standard je istoveten z: ISO 24617-7:2014
ICS:
01.020 7HUPLQRORJLMD QDþHODLQ Terminology (principles and
NRRUGLQDFLMD coordination)
35.060 Jeziki, ki se uporabljajo v Languages used in
informacijski tehniki in information technology
tehnologiji
SIST ISO 24617-7:2018 en,fr,de
2003-01.Slovenski inštitut za standardizacijo. Razmnoževanje celote ali delov tega standarda ni dovoljeno.
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SIST ISO 24617-7:2018
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SIST ISO 24617-7:2018
INTERNATIONAL ISO
STANDARD 24617-7
First edition
2014-12-15
Language resource management —
Semantic annotation framework —
Part 7:
Spatial information (ISOspace)
Gestion des ressources linguistiques — Cadre d’annotation
sémantique —
Partie 7: Information spatiale (ISOspace)
Reference number
ISO 24617-7:2014(E)
©
ISO 2014
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ISO 24617-7:2014(E)
COPYRIGHT PROTECTED DOCUMENT
© ISO 2014
All rights reserved. Unless otherwise specified, no part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized otherwise in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, or posting on the internet or an intranet, without prior
written permission. Permission can be requested from either ISO at the address below or ISO’s member body in the country of
the requester.
ISO copyright office
Case postale 56 • CH-1211 Geneva 20
Tel. + 41 22 749 01 11
Fax + 41 22 749 09 47
E-mail copyright@iso.org
Web www.iso.org
Published in Switzerland
ii © ISO 2014 – All rights reserved
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Contents Page
Foreword .iv
Introduction .v
1 Scope . 1
2 Normative references . 1
3 Terms and definitions . 1
4 List of tags . 4
5 Overview . 5
6 Motivation and requirements . 6
7 Specification of ISOspace for spatial annotation . 7
7.1 Overview: annotation vs. representation. 7
7.2 Abstract syntax for the ISOspace annotation structure . 7
8 Representation of ISOspace-conformant annotations . 8
8.1 XML-based concrete syntax: outline . 8
8.1.1 Overview . 8
8.1.2 Basic entitles . 9
8.1.3 Signals . 9
8.1.4 Links . 9
8.1.5 Root element . 9
8.2 Conventions for tagging . 9
8.2.1 Naming conventions . 9
8.2.2 Convention for inline tagging extents .10
8.3 Basic entity tags .11
8.3.1 .11
8.3.2 .13
8.3.3 .13
8.3.4 .14
8.3.5 for non-motion event .15
8.3.6 .15
8.3.7 .16
8.3.8 .16
8.4 Link tags .17
8.4.1 .17
8.4.2 .17
8.4.3 .18
8.4.4 .20
8.5 Root tag: .20
8.6 Summary .21
8.6.1 Identifier .21
8.6.2 Shared attributes .22
8.6.3 IDRef as value .23
Annex A (normative) Core annotation guidelines .24
Bibliography .52
© ISO 2014 – All rights reserved iii
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Foreword
ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) is a worldwide federation of national standards
bodies (ISO member bodies). The work of preparing International Standards is normally carried out
through ISO technical committees. Each member body interested in a subject for which a technical
committee has been established has the right to be represented on that committee. International
organizations, governmental and non-governmental, in liaison with ISO, also take part in the work.
ISO collaborates closely with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) on all matters of
electrotechnical standardization.
The procedures used to develop this document and those intended for its further maintenance are
described in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1. In particular the different approval criteria needed for the
different types of ISO documents should be noted. This document was drafted in accordance with the
editorial rules of the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2 (see www.iso.org/directives).
Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of
patent rights. ISO shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights. Details of any
patent rights identified during the development of the document will be in the Introduction and/or on
the ISO list of patent declarations received (see www.iso.org/patents).
Any trade name used in this document is information given for the convenience of users and does not
constitute an endorsement.
For an explanation on the meaning of ISO specific terms and expressions related to conformity
assessment, as well as information about ISO’s adherence to the WTO principles in the Technical Barriers
to Trade (TBT) see the following URL: Foreword - Supplementary information
The committee responsible for this document is ISO/TC 37, Terminology and other language and content
resources, Subcommittee SC 4, Language resource management.
ISO 24617 consists of the following parts, under the general title Language resource management —
Semantic annotation framework (semAF):
— Part 1: Time and events (SemAF-Time, ISO-TimeML)
— Part 2: Dialogue acts
— Part 4: Semantic roles (SemAF-SR)
— Part 5: Discourse structures (SemAF-DS)
— Part 6: Principles of semantic annotation (SemAF-Basics)
— Part 7: Spatial information (ISOspace)
— Part 8: Semantic relations in discourse (SemAF-DRel)
iv © ISO 2014 – All rights reserved
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Introduction
The automatic recognition of spatial information in natural language is currently attracting considerable
attention in the fields of computational linguistics and artificial intelligence. The development of
algorithms that exhibit “spatial awareness” promises to add needed functionality to NLP systems, from
named entity recognition to question-answering and text-based inference. However, in order for such
systems to reason spatially, they require the enrichment of textual data with the annotation of spatial
information in language. This involves a large range of linguistic constructions, including spatially
anchoring events, descriptions of objects in motion, viewer-relative descriptions of scenes, absolute
spatial descriptions of locations, and many other constructions.
This part of ISO 24617 was developed in collaboration with the ISOspace working group at Brandeis
University with the aim to provide an International Standard for the representation of spatial information
relating to locations, motions and non-motion events in language.
NOTE The ISOspace Working Group is headed by James Pustejovsky, jampesp@cs.brandeis.edu, Brandeis
University, Waltham, MA, U.S.A.
This part of ISO 24617 provides normative specifications and guidelines not only for spatial information,
but also for information content in motion and various other types of event in language.
The main parts of this part of ISO 24617 consist of the following:
a) Scope;
b) Normative references;
c) Terms and definitions;
d) List of tags or names of elements;
e) Overview;
f) Motivation and requirements;
g) Specification of the ISOspace annotation structure;
h) Representation of ISOspace-conformant annotations.
Clause 8 introduces an XML-based concrete syntax for representing spatial-related or motion-related
annotations based on the annotation structure of ISOspace that is presented in Clause 7 with a UML-
based metamodel.
A formal semantics for ISOspace will be provided as part of a future new work item within the semantic
annotation framework. This will be coordinated with the temporal semantics and specification of
ISO 24617-1 (SemAF-Time, ISO-TimeML), thereby producing a rich semantics that will be directly useable
by practitioners in computational linguistics and other communities (see Clause 6). The multilingual
extension of ISOspace will also be treated in a separate part of the ISO 24617- series in the near future.
NOTE Although the schema and DTD are not part of the present document as normative annexes, they will
both be found in a webpage relating to the ISOspace specification.
Normative Annex A is an integral part of ISO 24617 and provides core annotation guidelines.
© ISO 2014 – All rights reserved v
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SIST ISO 24617-7:2018
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SIST ISO 24617-7:2018
INTERNATIONAL STANDARD ISO 24617-7:2014(E)
Language resource management — Semantic annotation
framework —
Part 7:
Spatial information (ISOspace)
1 Scope
This part of ISO 24617 provides a framework for encoding a broad range not only of spatial information,
but also of spatiotemporal information relating to motion as expressed in natural language texts. This
part of ISO 24617 includes references to locations, general spatial entities, spatial relations (involving
topological, orientational, and metric values), dimensional information, motion events, and paths.
2 Normative references
The following documents, in whole or in part, are normatively referenced in this document and are
indispensable for its application. For dated references, only the edition cited applies. For undated
references, the latest edition of the referenced document (including any amendments) applies.
ISO 24617-1, Language resource management — Semantic annotation framework (SemAF) — Part 1: Time
and events (SemAF-Time, ISO-TimeML)
ISO/IEC 14977, Information technology — Syntactic metalanguage — Extended BNF
3 Terms and definitions
For the purposes of this document, the terms and definitions given in ISO 24617-1 and the following apply.
3.1
document creation location
dcl
unique place or set of places associated with a document that represents the location (3.7) in which the
document was created
1)
Note 1 to entry: Some collaboratively written documents, such as GoogleDoc documents and chat logs, might
refer not only to a single location but also to a set of locations spread out across the world. Besides, for example,
the creation place of the Hebrew bible or the creation place of each of the books in it is uncertain. The attribute @
dcl will, therefore, have the value “false” which is to be understood to mean “unspecified”, while the value “true”
is to be understood to mean “specified”.
3.2
event
eventuality
something that can be said to obtain or hold true, to happen or to occur
Note 1 to entry: This is a very broad notion of event, also known in the literature as “eventuality” and includes all
kinds of actions, states, processes, etc. It is not to be confused with the narrower notion of event (as opposed to
the notion of “state”) as something that happens at a certain point in time (e.g. the clock striking two or waking
up) or during a short period of time (e.g. laughing). In ISO-TimeML, the term event is used in a broader sense and
is equivalent to the term eventuality.
1) GoogleDoc is an example of a suitable product available commercially. This information is given for the
convenience of users of this document and does not constitute an endorsement by ISO of these products.
© ISO 2014 – All rights reserved 1
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[SOURCE: ISO 24617-1:2012]
3.3
event-path
path (3.13) or trajectory followed by a spatial entity (3.17) coincident with a motion-event (3.9)
3.4
extent
textual segment which is string of character segments in text to be annotated
EXAMPLE Tokens, words, and non-contiguous phrases (e.g. a complex verb like “look . up”) are extents.
3.5
figure
spatial entity (3.17) that is considered to be the focal object, which is related to some reference object
3.6
ground
spatial entity (3.17) that acts as reference for a figure (3.5)
3.7
location
point or finite area that is positioned within a space (3.16)
3.8
measure
magnitude of a spatial dimension or relation
EXAMPLE Distance is a spatial relation.
3.9
motion
motion-event
action or process involving the translocation of a spatial object, transformation of some spatial property
of an object, or change in the conformation of an object
Note 1 to entry: A motion (3.9) in ISOspace is a particular kind of event (3.2).
3.10
motion-signal
adjunct
motion-adjunct
path (3.13) of motion and/or manner of motion information contributed by a particle or by a prepositional,
adverbial phrase, in conjunction with a motion (3.9)-related text
Note 1 to entry: This terminology is specific to ISOspace and is different from the general term “adjunct” which is
used to describe optional syntactic elements.
3.11
non-cosuming tag
tag (3.19) that has no associated extent (3.4)
Note 1 to entry: The extent (3.4) of a non-consuming tag is a “null” string.
EXAMPLE In John ate an apple but Mary a pear, there are at least two ways of marking up the non-
consuming tag:
a) John ate an apple, but Mary ∅ a pear;
e1 e2
b) 1)
2) (non-consuming tag)
2 © ISO 2014 – All rights reserved
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3.12
orientation
orientation(al) relation
relation between a figure (3.5) and a ground (3.6) that expresses the spatial disposition or direction of a
spatial object within a frame of reference
3.13
path
location (3.7) that consists of a series of locations (3.7)
Note 1 to entry: A spatial object path is a location where the focus is on the potential for traversal or which
functions as a boundary. This includes common nouns like road, coastline, and river and proper names like Route
66 and Kangamangus Highway. Some nouns, such as valley, can be ambiguous. It can be understood as a path in we
walked down the valley or as a place (3.14) in we live in the valley.
Note 2 to entry: A path might be represented as an undirected graph whose vertices are locations (3.7) and whose
edges signify continuity; that is to say, a path has no inherent directionality.
3.14
place
geographic or administrative entity that is situated at a location (3.7)
3.15
region
connected, non-empty point-set defined by a domain and its boundary points
Note 1 to entry: The term “region” as defined here does not refer to a political or administrative region such as
“the Canary Islands” or “Hong Kong, SAR”, where SAR is the acronym of “Special Administrative Region”.
3.16
space
dimensional extent in which objects and events (3.2) have a relative position and direction
3.17
spatial entity
object that is situated at a unique location (3.7) for some period of time, and typically has the potential
to undergo translocation
Note 1 to entry: A spatial entity can also be understood as an object that participates in a spatial relation. In John is
sitting in a car, both John and car could be understood as spatial entities or as being the figure (3.5) and the ground
(3.6), respectively, of the sitting-in situation.
3.18
spatial signal
segment or series of segments of a text that rebounds to orientational (3.12) or topological relations (3.20)
3.19
tag
element name
name associated with textual segments for annotation or for a relation between these segments
Note 1 to entry: The following are two kinds of tag for annotation:
a) extent tag, which is associated with textual segments referring to basic entities or signals;
b) link tag, for representing spatial relations.
3.20
topological relation
relation that expresses the connectedness or continuity of spaces (3.16)
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4 List of tags
4.1 General
The tag in angled brackets stands for the name of an XML element. See 8.2.
4.2 Extent tags: Basic entities and signals
4.2.1
measure
extent tag representing some measure (3.8)
4.2.2
motion
extent tag representing a motion (3.9)
4.2.3
motionSignal
extent tag representing a motion-signal (3.10)
4.2.4
non-motion event
extent tag representing a non-motion event (3.9)
4.2.5
path
extent tag that represents a path (3.13)
4.2.6
place
extent tag that represents a place (3.14)
4.2.7
spatialEntity
extent tag that represents a spatial entity (3.17)
4.2.8
spatialSignal
extent tag that represents a spatial signal (3.18)
4.3 Link tags
4.3.1
mLink
linking tag that represents some measure (3.8)
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4.3.2
moveLink
linking tag that represents a relation between a motion (3.9) and participant spatial entities (3.17)
4.3.3
oLink
linking tag that represents an orientation relation (3.12) between a figure (3.5) and a ground (3.6)
4.3.4
qsLink
linking tag that represents a topological relation (3.20)
NOTE The tag qsLink or stands for a qualitative spatial link.
4.4 Root element
4.4.1
isoSpace
root element in which all ISOspace tags are embedded
NOTE In ISOspace annotations, all of the extent and link tags listed above are embedded in the tag .
5 Overview
Human languages impose diverse linguistic constructions for expressing concepts of space, of spatially-
anchored events, and of spatial configurations that relate in complex ways to the situations in which
they are used. One area that deserves further development regarding the connection between natural
language and formal representations of space is the automatic enrichment of textual data with spatial
annotations. There is a growing demand for such annotated data, particularly in the context of the
semantic web. Moreover, textual data routinely make reference to objects moving through space over
time. Integrating such information derived from textual sources into a geosensor data system can enhance
the overall spatiotemporal representation in changing and evolving situations, such as when tracking
objects through space with limited image data. It follows that verbal subjective descriptions of spatial
relations need to be translated into metrically meaningful positional information. A central research
question currently hindering progress in interpreting textual data is the lack of a clear separation of
the information that can be derived directly from linguistic interpretation and further information that
requires contextual interpretation. In order to avoid building incorrect deductions into the annotations
themselves, mark-up schemes should avoid over-annotating the text. Solutions to the language-space
mapping problem and its grounding in geospatial data are urgently required for this purpose.
There are many applications and tasks that would benefit from a robust spatial mark-up language, such
as ISOspace. These applications and tasks include the following:
a) creating a visualization of objects from a verbal description of a scene;
b) identifying the spatial relations associated with a sequence of processes and events from a news article;
c) determining an object location or tracking a moving object from a verbal description;
d) translating viewer-centric verbal descriptions into other relative descriptions or absolute coordinate
descriptions;
e) constructing a route given a route description;
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f) constructing a spatial model of an interior or exterior space given a verbal description;
g) integrating spatial descriptions with information from other media.
The goal of ISOspace is not to provide a formalism that fully represents the complexity of spatial
language but rather to capture these complex constructions in text in order to provide an inventory
of how spatial information is presented in natural language. For example, many texts have no explicit
frame of spatio-temporal reference, thus, making it impossible to annotate such an unspecified frame
of reference. The interpretation of spatial prepositions, such as on in a book on the desk vs a picture on
the wall requires a handbook of its own dealing with different senses or uses of spatial prepositions
beyond a set of annotation guidelines. Any detailed classification of motion verbs in English alone is
again beyond the scope of this International Standard.
All of the examples in the current version of part of ISO 24617 are from English datasets. The specification
language proposed in this International Standard can be seen as a version of ISOspace for English only
and its applicability to other languages is still pending. A multilingual extension of ISOspace is necessary
if the document is to be verified, but this is expected to immediately follow preliminary rigorous work
on establishing the first edition of this part of ISO 24617 as an International Standard for spatial and
motion-related annotation.
6 Motivation and requirements
This International Standard aims to formulate the requirements for spatiotemporal annotation
standards and to develop the ISOspace standard to meet these requirements. It assumes ISO 24612 and
builds on previous work, including ISO 24617-1 and other spatial representations and calculi.
Natural language abounds with descriptions of motion. Our experience of our own motion, together
with our perception of motion in the world, have given human languages substantial means to verbally
express many different aspects of movement, including its temporal circumstances, spatial trajectory and
manner. In every language on earth, verbalizations of motion can specify changes in the spatial position
of an object over time. In addition to when and where the motion takes place, languages additionally
characterize how the motion takes place (e.g., its path, its manner, and how it was caused). In particular,
the path of motion involves conceptualizations of the various spatial relationships that an object can
have to other objects in the space in which it moves. An understanding of such spatial information in
natural language is necessary for many computational linguistics and artificial intelligence applications.
Any specification language for spatial information in language will need to support the following
computational tasks:
— identification of the appropriate topological c
...
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