Abstract
Following recent applications of Relevance Theory to visual artworks like paintings and drawings (e.g., Pignocchi 2019), in this paper I discuss the case of maps. In different fields (e.g., in geography MacEachren 1994, in philosophy Millikan 2017) maps are frequently analyzed as communicating information in a code-like way, in which mindreading and pragmatics play a limited role. This is understandable, as maps seem to communicate information in a way that is almost completely explicit: provided that one is familiar with the conventions of cartographic semantics (e.g., geometric projection, legend, etc.), one can effortlessly decode it without making inferences about the mapmaker’s intentions. However, I argue, map communication is better analyzed through the lenses of Relevance Theory. Indeed, I argue that maps appear to be “just” codes because many popular cartographic uses are highly specialized, which in turn makes map pragmatics highly constrained. For instance, if we expect a map to be used for navigation, we don’t need much reasoning about the author’s intentions: we expect that the communicated information will represent the targeted territory in a descriptive way. However, in contexts like this one maps should be understood as communicating in a strong, but nevertheless ostensive way: the map conveys one or few strongly implied meanings, whose decoding is performed under the presumption of relevance and through mindreading (e.g., “someone must have placed this map outside of this park because she thinks it is relevant to help me navigate”). Moreover, I show that maps can communicate weakly, e.g., maps that embed statistical information may generate several different meanings (e.g., it can be interpreted as humorous, descriptive, prescriptive, etc.) which can only be derived by making assumptions about the mapmaker’s intentions. These are features, and not flaws, of map communication, which Relevance Theory (unlike competing accounts) can account for.
MacEachren, A. M. (1994). How maps work: representation, visualization, and design. Guilford Press
Millikan, R. G. (2017). Beyond concepts: Unicepts, language, and natural information. Oxford University Press.
Pignocchi, A. (2019). The continuity between art and everyday communication. Advances in Experimental Philosophy of Aesthetics, 241-266. Sperber, D., & Wilson, D. (1986). Relevance: Communication and cognition (Vol. 142). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
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