On the pragmatic approach to map analysis . Remarks on the basis

While I agree with the Morris division of semiotics, I am deeply unsatisfied with the way this division is applied in most studies in theoretical cartography. This is why below I would like to propose a new approach to the definition of these three subfields of semiotics in the cartographic context. I am particularly interested in the role pragmatics, currently one of the most dynamically developing branches of linguistic theory and in the same time a relatively neglected aspect of cartographic theory. While in the past three decades we are witnessing a growing number of pragmatic theories, concepts and syntheses as well as institutional developments like journals, books or conferences, most works on cartographic theory still draw on oldest classics in semiotics, some of them almost one hundred years old. Of course, the classics are never outdated. Plato or Aristotle, just as founders of semiotics will never loose their validity, but their discussion in context of modern applications should, as it seems to me, be followed by a review of more recent developments in the relevant fields.