Beginning with an analysis of existing approaches to the representation of spatial relations, this paper points out problems in interpretation caused by assuming a representation derived directly from expressions in natural language, particularly English. In particular, ambiguity exists in determining the frame-of• reference which in English can be viewer centered or reference object centered. Both viewer centered and object centered reference remain problematic. A representation which is viewer centered depends on information which is not available during interpretation. A representation which is object centered is highly typed and only available to a subset of objects. This argument coupled with numerous cross-linguistic examples suggests caution in assuming a simple universal "commonsense" description of space.