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From: andrea@hp-sdd.HP.COM (Andrea K. Frankel)
Newsgroups: comp.cog-eng
Subject: Re: spatial reference in natural language
Message-ID: <1057@hp-sdd.HP.COM>
Date: Tue, 1-Dec-87 14:44:10 EST
Article-I.D.: hp-sdd.1057
Posted: Tue Dec  1 14:44:10 1987
Date-Received: Fri, 4-Dec-87 22:51:11 EST
References: <6818@sunybcs.UUCP> <3540002@wdl1.UUCP>
Reply-To: andrea@hp-sdd.UUCP (Andrea K. Frankel)
Organization: Hewlett-Packard, San Diego Division
Lines: 25

In article <3540002@wdl1.UUCP> mhb@wdl1.UUCP (Michael H. Bender) writes:
>In the southern tip of the San Francisco Bay area it is common to
>refer to travel towards San Francisco as being North and the other
>direction as being South, even though the roads actually lead East and
>West at this point.  

I've found this to be true all along the California coastline - the
ocean establishes "west", and all other directions are relative to that.
There are several places (such as approaching LA from the south) where
the freeways are running east-west or nearly so, but that doesn't affect
most people's perception that LA is north when you're approaching
from San Diego.  This orientation towards the ocean as the major
landmark can really become habitual, to the point of creating massive
disorientation when visiting the East Coast or when on the eastern
side of a peninsula on the Bay!

Andrea Frankel, Hewlett-Packard (San Diego Division) (619) 592-4664
                "...like a song that's born to soar the sky"
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