grump

[gfish]

Who else gets slightly annoyed when people don't use the correct map-relative direction (up->north, down->south, over->east/west) when talking about large-scale geography? From Seattle I can head up to Vancouver, down to Portland, or over to Spokane. Period.

Comments

[neuro42.livejournal.com]

What about up/down[-hill], either on the local gradient or absolute altitude? Would you really head down to Rainier or Everest?

[hsifyppah.livejournal.com]

I once really pissed someone off by using them - huge crazy rant about how arrogant Canadians are calling US "down." Whee!

I don't feel very strongly about it, but I have been very charmed on the couple of occasions I've heard Australian visitors use the inverse convention. <3

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

Confusingly, in the UK, wherever you start from, it's always Up to London. (Blame the railways.) And of course you can also go Up to Oxford and Cambridge, and Down when leaving, regardless of your final destination.

It's not helped by North not being quite where we think it is, on our main landmass.

[cow.livejournal.com]

As already mentioned, if there's a reasonable z axis involved, I use up and down that way. So I live south of where I work, but I head up go to get home, since I work at sea level and live at the top of a hill.

[maida-mac.livejournal.com]

Yes. The exception is when talking about going anywhere from the town that I grew up in. From there, you go "down below" (out of the mountains), no matter where you're going.

[caladri.livejournal.com]

Almost related: Mongolian's words for left and right are backwards relative to east and west to map directions, since gers face south and thus south is conflated with forward. So left is east and right is west.

[ashley-y.livejournal.com]

Crossing water is "out" (to sea) and then "in" (to port).

[peteralway.livejournal.com]

It drives me nuts in astronomy when I ask a student to point north and they point up!

Or even worse, I get confused by left and right, so when I ask directions I ask for north, south, east and west directions. Some people will simply substitute east for right and west for left, whichever direction you are going.

[pielology.livejournal.com]

I think this kind of variation in usage is fascinating and harrumph on your notion of a "correct" relative direction.

I head out to Spokane, since it's less of an urban core than Seattle. When I lived in Iowa, I would drive "in" to Chicago. I might be introspecting wrong here, but I can't think of any instances in which I would say "over" for a large-scale trip. Maybe if I were crossing an ocean or something, or it was a trip I made frequently/casually.

[beaq.livejournal.com]

Down is toward the sun, wherever it may be.

[bigbumble.livejournal.com]

It is probably best I never show you a world map I bought in New Zealand.

tangentially, on spatial metaphors

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuXd3Qclka8

[zzyzx-xyzzy.livejournal.com]

the notion of a "correct" map-relative direction actually undermines the entire purpose and utility of maps, by falsely identifying the representation with the represented.

or as pylyshyn points out, the signature property of representations is the possibility of their misrepresenting, and a layout can only be a "map" if it is interpreted by some process that allows for the possibility of a misinterpretation.

[grinninfoole.livejournal.com]

Depends upon the reason for the terminology. Here in Massachusetts, there's an old tradition of referring to Maine as Down East, because the prevailing winds will blow one up the coast (hence, down wind) and as one goes down wind one travels quite a bit east as well as north.

[stolen-tea.livejournal.com]

When I'm at sea level, "inland" is "up" sometimes.

[randomdreams.livejournal.com]

I got a huge book of historic maps for Christmas. One of the many things I found interesting was the presumption that east was up on most maps until the 17th century, based upon a tradition of drawing Paradise at the top, Eden right below it, Jerusalem in the center, and the Mediterranean heading downwards from Jerusalem.

[sistawendy.livejournal.com]

I do, but you're well aware that I'm anal. You might want to start worrying about yourself now.

[maellenkleth]

Oh, 'inbound' and 'outbound' in the case of Boston (from any direction), given that the major roads are disposed in a wheel-spoke pattern. And in Vancouver (the real Vancouver, not that piddly-assed Columbian version), way too many busses simply announce themselves as 'downtown' without clear explication of route.