Semantic Comparison of Architectural Terms: A Computational Contextual Analysis

Abstract

We compare six purposively selected term pairs using an English-language web corpus composed mainly of encyclopedic sources: engawa/veranda, tsuboniwa/impluvium, shōji/fusuma, tokonoma/chigaidana, ma/mu, and wabi/sabi. The pairs form three groups: cross-cultural comparisons, related Japanese architectural elements, and conceptual or aesthetic pairings. The study applies an audited corpus-based Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT) analysis. Each pair is tested across predefined seed-based fields under FULL corpus conditions and CLEAN conditions that remove glossary-like and explicitly definitional sentences. In the tested corpus, the pairs do not behave as simple equivalents or oppositions. In cross-cultural comparisons, engawa is more strongly associated with indoor–outdoor boundary vocabulary, while narrowly specified boundary and transitional probes also favor engawa; veranda is more strongly linked to circulation and sheltered outdoor use. Tsuboniwa leans toward meanings of miniature gardens, whereas impluvium is strongly associated with water, basins, and Roman domestic systems. Within Japanese architectural vocabulary, fusuma dominates partition-related fields, whereas tokonoma and chigaidana remain mostly weak or non-separating. Among abstract terms, ma and mu show an asymmetric bidirectional pattern, with correction-supported separation more consistent for ma-directed than for mu-directed fields. Wabi and sabi show high contextual similarity in the selected English-language corpus, with correction-supported separation only for impermanence and melancholy. The field comparisons identify where the paired terms differ, where no difference was detected, and where one term was more strongly associated with several fields. The findings concern contextual usage in this corpus rather than definitive architectural, historical, or philosophical meanings of the terms.