Week 5

Question 1

What does speech reflect?

Answer 1

• Speaking is old, writing is relatively new
• Speech reflects the biological and cognitive modifications that occured during human evolution
• Writing evolved only in certain parts of the world

Question 2

What represents language?

Answer 2

• Language is primarily represented by speech, but many languages lack a writing system

Question 3

How is speech acquired naturally but writing is taught and learned?

Answer 3

• Unlike speaking, writing allows for communication across time and space
• Recording of literature, history, science and technology

Question 4

What is the common point?

Answer 4

• Both speech and writing show an arbitrary relationship:
• Between sound and meaning in speaking
• And betwen symbol and sound in writing

Question 5

What are the 4 prerequisites for a writing system?

Answer 5

1. Language: with a set of rules and conventions shared and understood by a group of people
2. Ideas: Preserved for a specific reason (eg., contracts, lists, religious docs)
3. Symbols: That are able to represent the basic elements of speech
4. Medium: On which to store and interpret the signs (e.g., scrolls)

Question 6

Protowriting

Answer 6

• Proto writing is any of the early systems of symbols that developed into writing
• Examples: Tallies for record-keeping, Quipu (series of knotted strings on a cord) used by the Inca to record numbers and potentially other information

Question 7

Protowriting: Sumerian clay tokens

Answer 7

• Sumerian clay tokens were used for counting agricultural goods
• Later, people started making impressions of the tokens on soft clay tablets
• May have led to the idea that other objects and events could be represented symbolically in graphic form

Question 8

Pictograms

Answer 8

• Early writing systems evolved from pictorial representations called pictograms
• A pictogram is an image of the object or concept that it represents

Question 9

Are pictograms still used today? What is the benefit of using pictograms instead of words?

Answer 9

• Pictograms are still used today e.g., traffic signs, information signs in public places, etc.
• The benefit is that it is easy to read, as all the information is provided at one glance and does not need any further explanation

Question 10

What is Cuneiform?

Answer 10

• Cuniform is one of the earliest systems of writing that began as a series of pictographs, then the signs became more abstract
• From latin cuneus (‘wedge’)

Question 11

Modern writing: What is Logographic type of modern writing?

Answer 11

• Logographics are symbols that represent words; the shape of the symbol is often closely related to the meaning of the concept
  E.g., early forms of cuneiform, Egyptian hieroglyphics, ancient Chinese characters
• Still used today: &,%, $, @

Question 12

Modern writing: What is Phonographic type of modern writing?

Answer 12

• Phonographic writing establishes some sort of a relationship between the written symbol and its pronunciation

Question 13

What are the two types of phonographic modern writing?

Answer 13

Syllabic: represents syllables
Alphabetic: represents consonant and vowel segments

Question 14

Syllabic writing: What are a set of signs called?

Answer 14

• Signs represent syllables; a set of signs is called a syllabary
• Languages with relatively simple syllabic structure (such as CV or CVC) are well suited for this type e.g., Japanese

Question 15

Alphabetic Writing: What is true alpahbetic?

Answer 15

True alphabetic: has letters for the vowels of a language as well as the consonants
- The first “true alphabet” in this sense is the Greek alphabet – a modified form of the Phoenician alphabet
-Other examples: Latin, Cyrillic, Hangul (Korean)

Question 16

Alphabetic writing: Abjads

Answer 16

• Each symbol stands for a consonant
• Vowels are either absent or expressed with diacritics
• E.g., Arabic, Hebrew

Question 17

Alphabetic writing: Abugidas

Answer 17

• All vowels (other than a default vowel, usually /a/) are represented
• There are no seperate vowel symbols
• E.g., Devanagari (Hindi)

Question 18

Chinese writing

Answer 18

• Developed out of pictograms that eventually came to represent morphemes (or even words)
• The units of contemporary writing are called characters

Question 19

What are the two parts of characters in chinese writing?

Answer 19

• Phonetic determinative: provides information about the pronunciation of the corresponding morpheme and tone is not represented in writing
• Radical or key: semantic content that provides clues about the morpheme’s meaning

Question 20

What is Pinyin?

Answer 20

• Pinyin is a system of writing Mandarin with a modified Latin alphabet

Question 21

English orthography: what are the two different types of homonyms?

Answer 21

Homographs: same spelling, different sound or meaning e.g., read (present tense) vs. read (past tense)
Homophones: same pronunciation, different spelling or meaning e.g., read (past tense) vs. red (color)

Question 22

What are some of the reaons for inconsistencies in spelling?

Answer 22

• Historical: French-speaking Norman invasion (1066) led to a decline of the use of English in offical documents and also changes in English spelling made by clerks trained in writing French and Latin
• Spelling of words that reflects their etymological origin: debt (dette), receipt (receite), salmon (samon)