Tailoring spatial descriptions to the addressee: a constraint-based approach

We present a model of the conceptual processes underlying the production of spatial descriptions. These processes are modeled as constraints that a speaker should satisfy in order to be communicatively successful. They encompass features that secure the tailoring of the description to the listener and the satisfaction of the communicative task. These features are rebated to certain properties of the spatial representation, relevant properties of the addressee as represented in the speaker's addressee model, and properties of the communicative situation. Together they conduce the selection of specific strategies and of the points of view and influence the linearization of the individual localizations. Based on an analysis of village descriptions, a partially ordered set of constraints is presented, which take into consideration the aforementioned properties and their influence on respective features of the conceptual processes, thereby ensuring that the speaker's description will enable the listener to construct an adequate mental representation of the described state of affairs.