LIN 6932 (6058) Writing Systems Fall 2001 
T 3-4 (9:35-11:30), R 4
(10:40-11:30) AND 21 Instructor: Ann Wehmeyer
Office: 472 Grinter Phone:
392-7082 Office hours: M, W 3:00-4:00, R 11:45-12:45
E-mail: wehmeyer@aall.ufl.edu
Overview
Requirements
and Grading
Daily
Schedule
Links
Rationale
The world’s writing
systems are increasingly drawing the attention of theoretical
linguists. Why is this? Two obvious, perhaps unrelated factors in
society at large might be the motivation: an increasing focus on
problems with learning to read and literacy in the U.S., and the
challenges/ problems that arise in working out the new
technologies involved in language and computation. These two
factors, at any rate, are ones we must face into the future,
perhaps as parents and/or educators, on the one hand, and users
of computers, on the other. It’s important that, as
linguists, we have a basic understanding of the nature and range
of the writing systems of the world. It is also important to
understand the types of strains such varied writing systems will
impose on the ever-expanding realm of computation and language.
This course is designed to address these areas, and to stimulate
us to think about language change, and the representation of
language in the future.
Required Texts
Coulmas, Florian. 1989. The
Writing Systems of the World. Oxford, UK and Cambridge, USA:
Blackwell.
Sproat, Richard. 2000. A
Computational Theory of Writing Systems. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Selected
Readings. Luis Online reserve, and regular reserve.
Outline of Course Content
History of Writing
1. How writing
originated
2. How writing
affected human life and behavior
Types of Writing Systems
1. Formal issues
2. Cognitive issues:
reading and language processing
3. Culture and
script
Computation and Writing
Systems
1. Text to speech
conversion
2. Computational
model of writing systems
Problems with
Orthography
1. Punctuation
2. Structural
limitations
3. Cultural identity
and orthography
Grading
and Requirements
I. Weekly presentations
Share with the class
something you have found written up, or have noticed yourself,
about the following:
Writing and life
today: how spelling, punctuation, etc. cause problems in
communication in today’s society (e.g., function of
the apostrophe; children’s spelling); computation,
new technologies and challenges confronting
representation of language (e.g. putting non-alphabetic
script on the www; computation, new technologies, and
innovative forms of representation (e.g., a sort of
"pidgin Japanese" on Palm Pilots), and other.
II. Mid-term exam (October
9, 2001)
III. Oral presentation of
assigned readings.
On several occasions
throughout the semester, you will be asked to present the
assigned reading for class discussion. You may supplement this
material with additional sources if you wish. This presentation
should not be a lengthy summary – any summary you provide
should be very brief. Rather, you should focus on some point(s)
of particular interest to you, and explain why you find them of
interest. In addition, you should offer your own critical
perspective on the reading in question. (A rough guideline to
begin with is to formulate a question, a comment, and a criticism
for the reading in question, and then build from there.)
IV. Term paper,
including
- Abstract
for term paper (one page, clearly stating the topic,
why you are interested in it, what you hope to find out,
and any problems you anticipate), due September 25,
2001.
- First Draft
(rough version of the final paper), due November
6, 2001,
- Class
presentation (20-30 minute presentation, 10-15
minutes for questions). All topics must be cleared by
consultation with the instructor.
- Final paper
should be 12-20 pages in length, with footnotes (or
endnotes) and bibliography. Due December 7, 2001.
- For format of
paper, please refer to Linguistic Inquiry
style sheet (in Volume 24, No. 1 <Winter 1993>,
or http://mitpress.mit.edu/LI, click on
"Submission Guidelines").
- For content of
paper, a rough guideline is as follows:
- Clearly and
concisely state the topic of the paper. Provide
the wider context for the particular issue you
are investigating. Indicate why this topic is
important, and what you plan to demonstrate,
prove, or investigate
- Present and
analyze the data.
- Discuss
previous research.
- State your
conclusion(s), and indicate any gaps in your
discussion, and areas for future research.
Discuss the implications of your conclusions.
3. Suggested topics:
- problems in
reducing a language to writing (e.g., history of
written Xhosa)
- second
language reading: cognitive issues
- contemporary
innovations (e.g. Japanese on Palm Pilot, e-mail
communications ‘shorthand’ or the like)
- deviations
from script typology (e.g., logographs in
English, innovative scripts)
- other
V. Grades will be
determined as follows:
1. Weekly
presentations 10%2. Oral presentation of assigned
readings 10%
3. Mid-term exam
40%
4. Term paper
abstract 05%
5. Term paper
first draft 05%
6. Term paper
presentation 05%
7. Term paper
25%
Daily
Schedule
August
R 23 Introduction
Human Language: Speech versus
Writing
T 28
- Coulmas, Chapter 1:
What Writing is All About (3-16)
- Ong, Walter J.
1992. "Writing is a Technology That Restructures
Thought." In Pamela Downing, Susan D. Lima, and
Michael Noonan, editors, The Linguistics of Literacy,
293-319. Amsterdam/Philadelphia.
- Olson, David. 1997.
"On the Relations between Speech and Writing."
In Clotilde Pontecorvo, editor, Writing Development:
An Interdisciplinary View, 3-20.
Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Origins of Writing
R 30
- Coulmas, Chapter 2:
From Icon to Symbol: The General Trend of Evolution
(17-36); Senner, Wayne M. 1989. "Theories and Myths
on the Origin of Writing: A Historical Overview." In
Wayne M. Senner, editor, The Origins of Writing,
1-26. Lincoln/London: The University of Nebraska Press.
Other: Gaur,
Albertine. 1995. "Scripts and Writing Systems: A
Historical Perspective." In Insup Taylor and David R.
Olson, editors, Scripts and Literacy: Reading and Learning
to Read Alphabets, 19-30. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic
Publishers. Diamond, Jared. 1999. "Blueprints and
Borrowed Letters." In Guns, Germs, and Steel: The
Fates of Human Societies, 215-238. New York/London: W.W.
Norton.
September
T 4
- Coulmas, Chapter 3:
Units of Speech and Units of Writing (37-54)
- Olson, David R.
1997. "The Written Representation of Negation."
Pragmatics and Cognition, 5:2, 235-252.
- Presentation:
- Assigned reading:
Other: Miller, D.
Gary. 1994. Ancient Scripts and Phonological Knowledge.
Amsterdam/Phildelhphia: John Benjamins.
Types of Writing Systems
R 6
- Coulmas, Chapter 4:
Sacred Characters: The Theocratic Script of Egypt (57-71)
- Coulmas, Chapter 5:
From Word to Syllable I: Cuneiform Writing 72-90
T 11
- Coulmas, Chapter 6:
An Alternative to the Alphabet: The Chinese Writing
System (91-110)
- Coulmas, Chapter 7:
From Word to Syllable II: Chinese Characters for Other
Languages (111-136)
- Presentation:
R 13
- Cho, Jeung-Ryeul
and Hsuan-Chih Chen. 1999. "Orthographic and
Phonological Activation in the Semantic Processing of
Korean Hanja and Hangul." Language and Cognitive
Processes 14:5/6, 481-502.
- Shafiullah,
Mohammed and Stephen Monsell. 1999. "The Cost of
Switching between Kanji and Kana while Reading
Japanese." Language and Cognitive Processes
14:5/6, 567-607.
T 18
- Coulmas, Chapter 8:
Semitic Writing: Syllables or Consonants? (137-157)
- Abu-Rabia, Salim.
2001. "The Role of Vowels in Reading Semitic
Scripts: Data from Arabic and Hebrew." Reading
and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal 14, 38-59.
- Presentation:
- Assigned reading:
Other: Abu-Rabia,
Salim. 1998. "Reading Arabic Texts: Effects of Text
Type, Reader Type, and Vowelization." Reading and Writing: An
Interdisciplinary Journal 10, 105-199.
R 20 Coulmas, Chapter 9:
The Alphabet (158-178)
Blanche-Benveniste,
Claire. 1997. "The Unit in Written and Oral
Language." In Clotilde Pontecorvo, editor, Writing
Development: An Interdisciplinary View, 21-45.
Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
T 25 Term Paper
Abstract due.
- Coulmas, Chapter
10: Writing in India (179-201)
- Vaid, Jyotsna.
1995. "Script Directionality Affects Nonlinguistic
Performance: Evidence from Hindi and Urdu." In Insup
Taylor and David R. Olson, editors, Scripts and
Literacy: Reading and Learning to Read Alphabets,
295-310. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
- Presentation:
- Assigned reading:
R 27
- Coulmas, Chapter
11: From Letter to Sound: Deciphering Written Languages
(205-224)
October
Creating or Selecting a
Writing System
T 2
- Coulmas, Chapter
12: From Sound to Letter: Creating Alphabets (225-240)
- Eira, Christina.
1998. "Authority and Discourse: Towards a Model for
Orthography Selection." Written Language and
Literacy 1:2, 171-224.
- Presentation:
- Assigned reading:
Other: Rogers,
Henry. 1995. "Optimal Orthographies." In Insup
Taylor and David R. Olson, editors, Scripts and Literacy:
Reading and Learning to Read Alphabets, 31-43. Dordrecht:
Kluwer Academic Publishers.
R 4
- Coulmas, Chapter
13: Writing Reform: Conditions and Implications (241-263)
- Coulmas, Chapter
14: What Writing Means for Linguistics (267-273)
Other:
Shraybom-Shivtiel, 1998. "The Question of Romanisation
of the Script and the Emergence of Nationalism in the Middle
East." Mediterranean Language Review 10, 179-196.
Trix, Frances. 1997. "Alphabet Conflict in the Balkans:
Albanian and the Congress of Monastir." International
Journal of the Sociology of Language 128, 1-23.
T 9 Mid-term exam:
all materials covered thus far
Computation and Writing
Systems: Text to speech conversion
R 11
- Sproat, Chapter 1:
Reading Devices (1-33)
T 16
- Bird, Steven.1999.
"Strategies for Representing Tone in African Writing
Systems." Written Language and Literacy 2:1,
1-44.
- Presentation:
Other: Bird, Steven.
1999. "When Marking Tone Reduces Fluency: An Orthography
Experiment in Cameroon." Language and Speech
42: 83-115. 1Aronoff, Mark1985. "Orthography and
Linguistic Theory: The Syntactic Basis of Masoretic Hebrew
Punctuation." Language 61:1, 28-72.
Core Proposals in
Sproat’s Computational Theory of Writing Systems
R 18
- Sproat, Chapter 2:
Regularity (34-66)
T 23
- Hardin, Erin E. et
al. 1998. "Reading Aloud from Logographic and
Alphabetic Texts: Comparisons between Chinese and
German." Journal of Psycholinguistic Research
27:3, 413-420.
- Koda, Keiko. 1995.
"Cognitive Consequences of L1 and L2
Orthographies." In Insup Taylor and David R. Olson,
editors, Scripts and Literacy: Reading and Learning to
Read Alphabets, 311-326. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic
Publishers.
- Presentation:
- Assigned reading:
R 25
- Sproat, Chapter 3:
ORL Depth and Consistency (67-130)
Evaluating Taxonomies of
Writing Systems
T 30
- Sproat, Chapter 4:
Linguistic Elements (131-162)
- Presentation:
November
R 1
- Sproat, Chapter 5:
Psycholinguistic Evidence (163-186)
- Butterworth, Brian.
1997. "Neural Organization and Writing
Systems." In Clotilde Pontecorvo, editor, Writing
Development: An Interdisciplinary View, 273-291.
Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
T 6 First Draft of
Term Paper due.
- Sproat, Chapter 6:
Further Issues (185-215)
- Presentation:
Issues in English Spelling
and Punctuation
R 8
- McCawley, James D.
1994. "Some Graphotactic Constraints." In W.C.
Watt, editor, Writing Systems and Cognition:
Perspectives from Psychology, Physiology, Linguistics,
and Semiotics, 115-127. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic
Publishers.
T 13
- Hook, Donald. 1999.
"The Apostrophe: Use and Misuse." English
Today 59, Vol. 15:3 (July), 42-49.
- Sebba, Mark. 1998.
"Phonology Meets Ideology: The Meaning of
Orthographic Practices in British Creole." Language
Problems and Language Planning 22:1, 19-47.
- Presentation:
- Assigned reading:
R 15
- Bayraktar, Murat,
et al. 1998. "An Analysis of English Punctuation:
The Special Case of Comma." International Journal
of Corpus Linguistics 3:1, 1998. 33-57.
T 20
- Connell, Tim. 1998.
"Is the End of the Hyphen in Sight?" English
Today 54, Vol. 14:2, 15-20.
- Aronoff, Mark.
1994. "Spelling As Culture." In W.C. Watt,
editor, Writing Systems and Cognition: Perspectives
from Psychology, Physiology, Linguistics, and Semiotics,
67-86. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
R 2 Thanksgiving holiday
T 27 Paper presentations
R 29 Paper presentations
December
T 4 Paper presentations
F 7 Term paper due
Links
SEAsite, Learning Vietnamese Online: Guide to
Pronunciation
Ancient
Scripts
Egyptian Hieroglyphs:
Sumerian
Akkadian
Indus Valley Script
Acknowledgement: Mayan graphic here
by courtesy of Lawrence Lo, creator and webmaster of Ancient
Scripts.com