using maps. For example, the application of automation Systems of searching and
processing scientific, technical and geographical information in cartography
becomes possible only with the logically founded system of exact and synonymous
terms.
At present many national and international scientific organizations are busy with
perfection of the terminology in cartography and sciences adjacent thereto.
Such work is carried out in two main directions: lexicographical and terminolo-
gical proper.
The first leads to compilation of dictionaries, i.e. collections of words and word
combinations used in a given field of knowledge in the basic language of a country
with equivalents in one or seveial languages. Such dictionaries are published in
Flungary, France, Poland, the USSR and other countries. The polyglot dictionary
of terms used in photogrammetry (the dictionary includes terms on topography and
cartography) is widely known. This dictionary is prepared by the International
Photogrammetric Association (11).
The purpose of the other, properly terminological direction of the work, is to
compile explanatory dictionaries (glossaries) which contain not only terms but also
their definitions. This work is considerably more complicated and requires more
labour than that of compiling ordinary dictionaries.
At the present time many countries are engaged in the compilation of glossaries
of cartographical terms.
Such glossaries have already been published in Australia (13), Great Britain (9),
France (1). They have been prepared by the national commissions or working
groups which consisted of representatives of various departments and Services of
one or another country.
Such glossaries generally reflect a system of cartographical terms and their
definitions, adopted in a given country. The glossaries published as Supplements to
topographical and cartographical instructions or manuals are of another character.
Most of them contain terminology adopted only in one or another institute. Such
are, for example, American glossaries of terms of the Geological Survey (2), the US
Coast and Geodetic Survey (3), of the US Army Map Service (6, 7) etc.
Along with national publications of synonymous glossaries also known are
polyglot dictionaries-glossaries published by international organizations. Dic-
tionaries-glossaries of the International Federation of Surveyors (4) or Internatio
nal Hydrographie Bureau (5) can serve as examples. Both these dictionaries contain
many cartographic terms. The Terminological dictionary on scientific information in
Bulgarian, Hungarian, German, Polish, Rumanian, Russian and Czech prepared
by the permanent Commission on coordination of scientific and technical re-
search of the Council of Mutual Economic Assistance, represents a certain
interest.
The great number of the above said publications are characterized by conside-
rable variations in the total volume and vocabulary composition of notions to be
determined. Some of the publications contain several thousands of terms; the
volume of other publications is limited to one-two hundreds of basic terms.
Some glossaries contain terms relating to the whole complex of knowledge and
processes of mapping beginning from field work tili map printing. The others
contain terms relating only to a certain part of cartographic processes. In some
cases detailed definitions of terms are given, in other cases only brief definitions are
424
K.N.A.G. Geografisch Tijdschrift I 1967) Afr. 5
