THE LANGUAGE OF GEOGRAPHY

Abstract

Communication in geography will be more successful if the ways in which we manipulate language are better understood. Recognition and understanding of normal mental set reduce its effect as an inhibitor of recognition of other unconscious behavior. Great semantic variation in geographic terms is masked by 1) contextual carrying of meaning in communication and 2) highly individual formulation of central meaning and range of meaning concepts that are rarely challenged. Language by language, vocabulary categories and grammar force some observations and inhibit others, affecting the isolates (and their attributes) from nature and experience that are observed and the manner of observing them. Phenomena of interest to geographers are continuously variable in time and space, but in non-mathematical communication a continuum is commonly represented as a series of static and discrete segments. Maps communicating in a new way, showing characteristic continuous variability, might shed light on current issues related to the massive end of geometric progressions. Context is a geographic dimension. Pattern recognition, assimilation by systems, and automatic data processing, called forth by the exponentially increasing volume of pertinent information, represent more or less new types of communication. New keyword indexing of publications and reliance on abstracts lend new importance to the wording of titles and condensation of messages. Automated instrumental observation and imaging of terrestrial phenomena from extra-terrestrial vantage points can provide comparable and repeatable worldwide observations and instant generalizations made directly from particulars with simultaneous sampling of particulars. This is a new medium of communication which we shall master more readily if we improve our understanding of language behavior and of the processes that tend to inhibit or facilitate our acceptance of pertinent new truth.