ABSTRACT
The idea of using natural language as a model for the study of cartographic signs has already been mentioned, and indeed the idea is given a certain credence by the frequent references to map ‘reading’. As the map presents an account of the distribution of certain phenomena over a particular area of the Earth’s surface, it can be likened to a descriptive written text. Although the fundamental distinction between the linear arrangement of language and the two-dimensional display of any graphic image is quite evident, the presumed equivalence between map and written text is a common characteristic of much theorizing about cartographic communication. The linear sequences of most of the cartographic communication diagrams, whether intentional or not, demonstrate this presumption.
