2 replies to this topic

[Gamik]

Hello all,

I am not a cartographer but rather a professional translator of French technical documents into English seeking some help.

I have on hand a PowerPoint presentation in French on cartography basics that I have to translate into English. I was wondering whether someone here can help me with some French cartography terms.

This is the text in question:

-------------------
La conception et la r?alisation d'une carte doivent ?tre guid?es
par l'identification de 6 ?l?ments :

-l'objectif
-la cible, le public, le support
-l'information ? cartographier
-l'implantation
-la figuration de l'implantation
-la figuration graphique de l'information
---------------------------------

Two questions:

1. What is "implantation" int the cartographic context?

2. What is "figuration"? Can I leave it as "figuration" in English?

"Implantation" appears often in the document. An example:

-----------
L'implantation peut changer selon l'?chelle :
-surfacique ? grande ?chelle
-ponctuelle ? petite ?chelle.
---------------------

The accompanying illustrations shows the representation of a city on two maps:

At a small scale, it is a point. At a larger scale ("zoomed in"), it is
an irregularly shaped two-dimensional spot.

All help appreciated.

-G. Amik

[Hans van der Maarel]

The (former) Dutch Cartographic Association, now part of the organisation Geo-Informatics Netherlands published the Cartographic Dictionary a few years ago. The website Kartografie.nl has an online version.

Unfortunately, the interface is in Dutch, but it does contain English, German and French translations of most of the content.

1: go to http://www.kartograf...nboek/find.html
2: enter the word you are looking for in the 4th text box (the one on the line that starts with 'frans')
3: hit 'ZOEKEN'

Unfortunately, figuration returns 2 results. "Representation" seems to be the best translation. I can't get any result for implantation.

[l.jegou]

Sorry, i didn't see this post before...

The "implantation" is the type of the graphic manifestation of the real-world object on the map. Logically, it varies with the scale, so a town can be figured as a "implantation ponctuelle", a point, or a "implantation surfacique", a 2d surface representing the extension of the limits of the town.

"Figuration" means graphic representation, the transformation into a graphic symbol or figurative drawing.

The best online ressources for french terms are :

The french language treasure : http://atilf.atilf.fr

The Grand Dictionnaire terminologique : http://granddictionnaire.com (bilingual / english)