The influence of functional relations on spatial term selection

Expressions describing the spatial relation between two objects can be interpreted from a perspective defined by the objects (intrinsic) or by the viewer or the environment (deictic-extrinsic). Identifying the factors that govern the selection of one perspective over another is an important step in understanding the interaction between language and perception. In two experiments, we explored the influence of a functional relation between two objects on the formulation of a spatial expression relating the objects. Both rating and production tasks showed that people preferred to use intrinsic descriptions in the presence of a functional relation and deictic-extrinsic descriptions in the absence of such a relation. These results suggest that contextual aspects of the scene influence spatial term selection.