SLAT6827 Second Language Literacy Semester 2, 2003

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SLAT6827 Second Language Literacy Semester 2,
2003

• Lecture slides and notes
• Week 7
• Writing the Written Language

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How does written language differ from spoken
language? (1)

• Writing
• is specific to groups, speaking is universal.
•  
• was invented, speaking developed.
•  
• is a technology, speaking is a human attribute.
•  
• is only 5-6000 years old Humans have been
  speaking for hundreds of thousands of years.
•  

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How does written language differ from spoken
language? (2)

• is typically done in different settings, and
  for different purposes than speaking.
•  
• cannot rely on immediate physical context.
•  
• is usually planned.

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 What advantages does written language have over
spoken language?

• Writing has an advantage over speaking in that it
  is   more permanent  more transportable
  (historically)  more confidential   allows
  data storage and retrieval (commercial and
  government uses) Can you think of
  disadvantages?

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Origins in pictures

• Writing developed from pictures
• Pictures gtgtgt graphic representation of objects
• Writing gtgtgt system of visual symbols
  representing audible symbols
• A drawing initially stands for the sun, latter
  associated with the sound of the word sun, later
  extended to the word son or the first part of
  Sunday.

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From primary to secondary symbolisation

• The movement is from primary to secondary
  symbolisation a written symbol is used to
  represent an oral symbol of the object.
• Example from vanity number plates (GR8FUL, UBYUT)

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History of writing

• Developed in Mesopotamia between 3500-2600 BC
• Spread south to Egypt in 3000BC
• - west to the Indus valley (India
  Pakistan)2500BC
• - and China (2000 BC)
• By 1500BC the technologically advanced
  civilizations had rudimentary writing systems.

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Three types of writing syllabic, logographic,
alphabetic

• Syllabic writing systems are based on
  relationship between graphic symbols (graphs) and
  spoken syllables. Earliest form of writing,
  developed by the Sumerians in cuneiform writing
  and Egyptians in the hieroglyphic system.
  Syllabic systems can be very regular, and are
  best adapted for languages with a limited number
  of syllables.
• Example Japanese kana or Tamil syllabary

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Japanese syllabary

• ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
• a ka sa ta na ha ma ya
  ra wa
• ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
• i ki si ti ni hi mi
  -- ri wo
• ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
• u ku su tsu nu hu mu yu
  ru n
• ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
• e ke se te ne he me --
  re
• ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
• o ko so to no ho mo yo ro

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Three types of writing syllabic, logographic,
alphabetic

• Logographic writing systems are based on
  relationship between graphic symbols (graphs) and
  spoken words (morphemes). Developed from
  ideograms and used from an early time (Bronze Age
  1700-500 BC) to represent abstract ideas. Useful
  for languages where there is much homophony.
  Example Chinese characters used in Chinese and
  Japanese

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Many characters consist of a radical that
suggests meaning and a phonetic element that can
give pronunciation.

• hachi EIGHT kuchi MOUTH
• ? ? ? fune BOAT
• ? gunkan WARSHIP
• ?? shin MINISTER ? ??
• ?? kan SUPERVISE
• ? ??
• ?? SARA dish kantoku DIRECTOR

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Character scripts

• In Chinese a knowledge of 5000 characters is
  needed to read a daily newspaper, up to 30,000 to
  read literature. Japanese uses a more restricted
  set (about 2000 daily use characters).
• Highly productive compounding makes task easier.
• ??? zi xing che
• self moving vehicle bicycle
• Provided a uniform written language in China.

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Three types of writing syllabic, logographic,
alphabetic

• Alphabetic writing systems are based on
  relationship between graphic symbols (graphs) and
  individual sounds (phonemes). Developed by Greeks
  and Romans (600 BC). Close relationship between
  sound and spelling (orthography).

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Alphabet languages

• Greek, Spanish, English (26 letters)
• Spanish has a nearly one-to-one mapping between
  symbol and sound (grapheme-phoneme)
• La ortographia es bastante uniforme.
• The orthography is very uniform.
• English is much less regular e.g., knight versus
  bite, or the ough sound in tough, through,
  thorough, hiccough.

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The rules that govern writing the Latin alphabet
are

• The direction of writing is from left to right
• There are conventional points of entry and
  direction of the strokes that make up the
  letters. This determines the movement or ductus
  of the letters.
• Letters are of different heights and these
  heights are constant in relation to each other.
• There are two sets of letters capital letters
  and small letters.
• Letters and words are spaced adequately.
• Are there similar rules for Chinese characters?

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Elements of writing

• What does a writer need to know?
• How to generate script (handwriting, keyboarding)
• Mastery of sentence level lexis and grammar
• Mastery of discourse structure
• Understanding of register
• Understanding of genre
• How does the act of writing differ from the act
  of reading?

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Approaches to writing

• Text analytic
• Writing Composing process
• Social construction

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SLAT6827 Week7 last slide