Week 14 - Writing Systems Flashcards
Writing Systems
Non-sound-based system = pictogram & ideographic
Sound-based system = syllabic & alphabetic
Non-sound-based writing
independent of a particular language,
meaning that you don’t have to speak a particular language in order to understand what the symbols mean. That is because each symbol represents (roughly speaking) the meaning of a word, not the sound of the word
Pictographic writing
- Often found on the walls of caves
- One or more pictures are used to represent a message
- Require knowledge of the language
- The drawing at least tries to resemble what it represents
(Iconic representation) - True pictograms / pictographs are created on-the-spot as needed which leads to open interpretation to those who see these drawings
Disavantages of Pictographic writing
- It relies too heavily on artistic talent
- Even if the “writer” is/was talented, the message is usually highly ambiguous
- It is impossible to have iconic representations for abstract things (e.g. air), ideas (e.g. love,
hate) or concepts (e.g. a person thinking vs. dreaming, etc.)
Overcome Pictographic writing disavantages
- We can conventionalize simple pictures for things and for abstract things, ideas, concepts = images are very simple or little talent for drawing
Ideographic writing
- Ideographic writing is also known as logographic writing (ideograms = logograms) (Japanese!)
- In an ideographic / logographic writing system each symbol usually represents the meaning of a
morpheme or a concept. - Importantly, the symbol is not related to the sound of the morpheme that it represents (numbers: same symbol pronounced different for every language)
Difference between Pictographic writing and Ideographic writing?
A crucial difference between pictographs and ideographs is that ideographs (aka ideograms / logographs / logograms) are conventionalized (which means that there is an agreed upon way to symbolize a given word or message within, or even across, cultures) such as the smoking sign!
Why some messages are using ideographic writing indtead of alphabetical writing for the signs?
- Interpreting the word or message does not require knowledge of a particular language
- The visual connection to meaning is direct
The rhebus principle
- When a pictograph or an ideographic symbol that represents a concept is extended to another concept that is homophonous (i.e. sounds the same but means something different).
- There is a shift in focus from the referent (i.e. thing /
idea for which the ideogram stands) to the sound of the word represented by the ideogram
Syllabic writing
Japanese katakana = Each symbol represents one spoken syllable - together the symbols make up a syllabary.
Problem = missing sounds for native speaker (keys = kizu)
Alphabetic writing
Each distinct symbol represents one distinct speech sound (phoneme) and only one sound.
- each symbol is called a letter (indicated with )
- together the symbols make up an alphabet
Alphabetic Principle
Each distinctive speech sound (i.e. phoneme) of the language is represented by a single letter and each distinct letter represents only a single distinct speech sound.
1) One sound can often be represented with more than one letter or letter combination
2) One letter or letter combination can often represent more than one sound:
3) Two-letter combinations (digraphs)- are often used to represent one single sound
4) There are sounds in words that are not shown in the writing
5) There are letters in words that do not represent any sound (and some do not even have a function indicating how a letter should be pronounced:
Advantage of an alphabetic system over an ideographic one
There are far, far fewer symbols to learn
Advantage of an alphabetic system over a syllabic one
An alphabet can be used to represent any language
