Written Forms of Language (10-Nov-2003)
There are many forms of graphic expression (as shown by Twyman's chart
Crystal p.184), including pictures, charts, writing, musical notation. When
script is used to put meaning on paper, it is generally either
- logographic, where the written figure represents a word or concept,
without reference to any particular sound. The Chinese character set follows
this pattern, so although there are different spoken languages within China,
no translation is required between written texts. This is similar to the way
that the figure "7" does not need to be translated from English to French in
order to be understood (the symbol has no specific sound associated with
it)
- phonographic, where the writing attempts to convey the sound of
the spoken utterance in some way. Phonographic writing may be
syllabic, where each symbol stands for a syllable, or alphabetic,
where each symbol represents a particular consonant or vowel sound (although
there may not be a strict correspondence between alphabetic symbols and
phonemes for the language)
The Japanese spoken language lends itself to a syllabic form of script,
since "all words in Japanese can be phonologically represented by about one
hundred syllables, mostly of the CV type" [Fromkin]. In fact, Japanese has
two syllabaries, katakana and hiragana. In katakana, diacritics
are used to indicate voicing. Japanese also borrows ideograms from the
Chinese character set (kanji).
Syllabaries may reflect certain phonetic qualities in the sound which each
symbol represents. In katakana, diacritics may be used to represent voicing,
or lack of it (the symbols for the sounds "ga" and "ka" are otherwise
identical). Kannada, a language from the Indian sub-continent, uses a
syllabary, but common shapes are used within the characters to represent
particular vowel sounds.
While spoken language is acquired apparently effortlessly, written language
needs to be taught, and is a relatively difficult skill to acquire. With this
in mind, the irregular spelling system of English attracts attention and some
people (notably Shaw) have advocated that it be regularized. However, there
might be disadvantages in doing this: for example, the word "bath" can be
pronounced differently depending on the accent of the speaker. If we were to
change the spelling to "barth", then that would seem peculiar to those people
who didn't pronounce it that way. Also, while it may be awkward to have to
remember that the final "c" in "electric" changes from a "k" sound to "s" or
"sh" in the words "electricity" and "electrician", if we were to change the
spelling of the words to reflect their sound, we would lose the common root
"electric" (which may be seen as functioning almost as an ideogram).
In all cases, since the written form of the language develops after
the spoken form, scripts rely on users knowing the spoken language well.
Approaches to Reading
Crystal lists some classifications of teaching techniques:
- basal reading programmes work with a series of books, texts,
etc. which are graded for difficulty, e.g. Peter and Jane books.
- language experience programmes use a mixture of oral, aural,
reading and writing materials
- individualized programmes allow the child to proceed at his own
pace, selecting reading material which is of interest to the child. These
are often used in remedial cases
- phonic systems try and teach the child to learn the phonetic
value of certain letters, so as to be able to spell out words.
- whole word systems aim to have the child recognize whole words
rather than the individual characters that make up the word
Aspects of Writing
Writing requires the child to learn specific motor skills (holding a pen,
applying a certain pressure, etc.), as well as linguistic skills - the way
that words are expressed in written form may not reflect the way that they are
used in speech ("should of" vs. "should have").
Problems with learning to read or write
It is suggested that up to 5% of children have a problem learning to read and
write, and Bryant & Bradley suggest that this may in part be explained by the
child not having developed their spoken language skills in a normal way: for
example, most children indulge in word-play that seems to show their ability
to deconstruct words, form rhymes, etc., and it may be these skills which come
in useful when they study the written form. Children who do not display
these word-play skills may not be obviously "falling behind", but may be
failing to build up this framework.
Book readings:
- Crystal, ch. 22,23,44
- Fromkin: "An Introduction to Language" ch. 12
Language in the Individual and in
Society notes index