GEOG 581: Cartography Design

Session ONE

GIScience 2004 Conference

http://www.giscience.org

GeoVista Center at Penn State

(http://www.geovista.psu.edu/index.jsp)

Group Project Proposal Presentation 

(Each group has 5 minutes presentation)

Semiotic and Semiology

(the study of signs.)

Cognitive Science provide a private, cognitive perspective on representation of maps. 

Semiotic perspective provide a public functional and lexical perspective for maps.

Semiotic as a science of sign (the logic and the typology)  (Pierce: traditional science approach) 

vs.

Semiology as the study of the life of signs (sign systems, codes theory) in society (Saussure: linguistic approach)

On-line Book (Semiotics for Beginner, by Daniel Chandler  (http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/semiotic.html )

A physical traffic Sign is an example of a sign-vehicle, as is a drawing of a pair of crossed pickaxes on a topographic map.

Sign-vehicle:  the carrier of meaning  (This sign)

Interpretant:  the meaning (or concept) to the sign refer to..  (Parking space is available...)

Referent:  the object of reference linked via the sign  (the real item).  (The actual Parking lot)

Dyadic Model  (Saussure) (Two levels): 

Sign-vehicle (signified)  vs. Interpretant (signifier)

     (pictures from http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/semiotic.html )

Triadic Model (Peirce):   A sign mediates between the interpretant (mental concept) .. and its object (referent)...  The role of a sign is to establish a general rule.. to link the two.

Or the interpretant  link the "sign" and "object" together.

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Five modes of Signifying (Morris):

Designative: observable properties  (color change--> population density)

Appraisive:  consummatory properties (highway symbols) give some condition/status)

Prescriptive:  reacted to, or a response (Stop sign, one way street).

Indentificative:  spatial-temporal region.

Formative:  a logical way to express (with conjunctions).

How Sign Signify ?  Specificity of Levels of Meanings

Session TWO

POSTER presentation (two minutes per person)

(Good poster will be selected and re-printed on the CESAL Lab Wall).