title: Representing part-whole relations in conceptual spaces.
abstract: In this paper, we propose a cognitive semantic approach to represent part-whole relations. We base our proposal on the theory of conceptual spaces, focusing on prototypical structures in part-whole relations. Prototypical structures are not accounted for in traditional mereological formalisms. In our account, parts and wholes are represented in distinct conceptual spaces; parts are joined to form wholes in a structure space. The structure space allows systematic similarity judgments between wholes, taking into consideration shared parts and their configurations. A point in the structure space denotes a particular part structure; regions in the space represent different general types of part structures. We argue that the structural space can represent prototype effects: structural types are formed around typical arrangements of parts. We also show how structure space captures the variations in part structure of a given concept across different domains. In addition, we discuss how some taxonomies of part-whole relations can be understood within our framework.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Informatics, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), CP 15064, Porto Alegre, RS, CEP 91501-970, Brazil, srfiorini@inf.ufrgs.br.
authors.forename: Sandro
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rama Fiorini
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gärdenfors
authors.forename: Mara
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Abel
mesh_terms: D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D003210:Concept Formation / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008960:Models, Psychological; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology*