maps of the moon. The history of cartography demonstrates the same; first maps
appear which give a general Overall impression; muCh later maps follow which show
more detailed structural knowledge about an area: The Thematic Maps.
After having set aside the question of the 'how' of the cartographic means of
expression, and having answered the 'whom' part with 'the variedly interested public
at large', the question of the 'what' part remains to be answered; the question,
therefore, of the content of the topographic map. To answer this question we have to
be led by what linguistics teaches us about the possibilities of language-use, because
the map is sometimes said to be one of the languages of the geographer.
A recent approach2 to the study of language has sought to divide it into
'indicative', that is the language used to State facts, and the 'emotive', the language
which seeks to arouse feeling or suggest an emotional attitude. From this Standpoint,
the 'emotive' language is often held to have no real meaning as an expression of truth.
A possible third type of language which might be added to the 'indicative' and the
'emotive' is what may be termed the 'symbolic'. One can introduce this division also in
the language of cartography. The symbolic function dominates the thematic map.
Usually after thorough research we find on the thematic map the detailed structural
knowledge (the insight) plotted by means of a combination of abstract map characters,
the 'map symbols'. As an example one can take a geological as well as a demographic
map: the qualitative colour area symbols used thereon are abstract to such a degree
that the same symbol on the above mentioned maps can indicate strongly diverse data.
A map has emotive functions when one wants to transfer to the map user, besides
'insight' or 'over-view', or even principally, feeling for an area. A striking example of
emotive map use is the proud 'Leo Belgicus' with which Johan van Doetechem
presentsthe Seventeen Provinces of the Netherlands to his contemporaries (see fig. 1).
And how much warm sentiment isn't there represented in the Medieval T-0 charts!
(see fig. 2). And in our time, many tourist maps of recreational areas, such as the
inviting panoramic charts or view-maps of the Alps are examples of emotive map use.
Such maps are more valuable for their suggestive power than for their content
accuracy. Contrary to these, the maps of the high mountain areas, designed by the
Father of European Cartography, Eduard Imhof, artist and cartographer, represent a
great deal of feeling in addition to a great degree of topographic perfection. It is,
however, remarkable that the topographic ränge of these maps is narrow.
Indicative maps principally offer an overall view of the material contents of an area.
In mainly sobre and exact cartographic language, for the greater part consisting of
pictorial symbols, these maps present an inventory of the real, measurable elements
and characteristics of the terrain in an as authentic and accurate possible manner. As
we already indicated these indicative, inventorial maps, which give an overall view, are
the primary maps which form the central ancestral line in the cartographic family tree.
Quantitatively, they take up the greater part in the desk and school atlases and the
first number of pages in thematic atlases. They represent the base maps of continents
and countries, from which thematic maps are derived.
Within the group of indicative maps, topographic maps take-up an important part.
The term topography comes from the Greek geographers, who used this term to
describe areas of limited extent. They placed the term topography at the same level
THE TOPOGRAPHIC MAP AS AN INDICATIVE MAP
268 K.N.A.G. Geograßsch Tijdschrift Vt 11972) Nr. 3
