Moderncartographiclanguage.docVIP

MODERN CARTOGRAPHIC LANGUAGE ZHOU Zhao, LIU Haiyan, LI Shaomei, XIAO Jihua Department of Cartography, Institute of Surveying and Mapping， No.66, Longhai Middle Road, Zhengzhou, 450052,P.R. China Abstract：Nowadays map symbols, not merely including symbols, should be regarded as a special language, i.e. the cartographic language. With the help of the cartographic language, people are able to get more pragmatic spatial information from the map, and transmit geospatial information more vividly and accurately. In this paper, the author classifies the modern cartographic language as three types: visual symbols, auditory symbols and tactual symbols. In addition, the paper also discusses the essential and composition laws of the modern cartographic language, namely visual variable, auditory variable and tactual variable. Keywords cartographic language; map symbol; visual symbols; auditory symbols; touch symbols 1 Introduction The development of map symbol theories is closely related with the development of human spatial recognition and abstraction abilities, and that of science and technology. When paper is used as the main carrier of maps, map symbols printed on paper are usually regarded as graphic symbols. With the technologies of visualization, multimedia, and virtual reality applied in maps, many new kinds of maps appear such as electronic maps, multimedia maps, and three-dimensional maps and so on. These new type maps have various ways to transmit and cognize geospatial information. For example, besides graphic symbols, they also use auditory media including sound and music; visual media such as cartoon and video; tactual media and even the mixed media combined by the three types mentioned above .As a result, the meaning of map symbols has been widely enlarged. In this paper, to study map symbols from the linguistic angle is suggested as a means to further the research of map symbols. 2 The Development of Modern Cartographic Language Modern cartographic language has g