Potenziale kontrastiver Kartographie [Potentials of contrastive cartography]

Contrastive linguistics deals with synchronic comparisons of linguistic systems. Following such concept of contrastivity, this article aims at demonstrating the potentials of a contrastive cartography on three speech levels: (1) the technical language of cartography; (2) everyday speech of the users of cartographic products; (3) cartographic sign language. Approaches on contrastive research on each of this three levels will be introduced in a rather descriptive way on the basis of empirical sample data in English, German and Spanish. Furthermore, the evaluative and normative potentials of contrastive comparison ranging from definition of terms to cartographic design guidelines shall be outlined.