An investigation of the meaning of near and close on a university campus

Abstract

An experimental study of the geographic natural language concepts near and close is presented. Using the Spatial Relations Acquisition Station, two groups of subjects were asked whether they believed particular buildings on the campus of Kent State University to be either near or close to one central building, the Student Center. Three clusters can be identified among the subjects responding for the concept near, and from analysis of the close data direct parallels can be identified. One cluster of each term shows all buildings to be near or close to the Student Center, while, at the other extreme, another cluster shows all but a core group to be not-near. A number of personal characteristics were gathered for subjects in the study, but none gave a significant prediction of which cluster a student might belong to.