1!What Follows from Writing?!i103!History of Information!Geoff Nunberg!2/3/09!2!Itinerary!Discussion of assignment!Review of writing systems!Social & cognitive effects of writing & alphabet!3!Today's Assignment !In his 1987 study of the cognitive effects of word-processing systems, Electric Language, Michael Heim wrote:! The accelerated automation of word-processing makes possible a new immediacy in the creation of public, typified text. Immediacy in the sense of there being no medium quod, no instrumental impediment to thinking in external symbols, but only a medium quo, or purely transparent element. As I write, I can put things directly into writing, My stream of consciousness can be paralled by the running flow of the electric element. Words dance on the screen. Sentences flow smoothly into place, make way for one another, while paragraphs ripple down the screen. Words become highlighted, vanish at the push of a button, then reappear instantly at will. Verbal life is fast-paced, easier, with something of the exhilaration of video games....!Because this playful way of putting things is immediate, enjoyable, and less constrained by materials, it encourages on-screen thinking, that is, thinking in a typified, public element.... Digital writing is nearly frictionless. It invites the formulation of thought directly in the electric element...!Reading this passage, would you say that Heim's view of the effects of writing technology comes closer to that of Havelock or r of Scribner and Cole? Why? Write a paragraph briefly defending and explaining your view.!The Swackhamerist Urge!"Influence of the Telegraph upon Literature," by Conrad Swackhamer, United States Democratic Review, 1848!Telegraph requires brevity & directness. Forces users to discard the verbosity and complexity of the prevalent English style. The "telegraphic style" will be "terse, condensed, expressive, sparing of expletives, and utterly ignorant of synonyms" will "propel the English language toward a new standard of perfection."!See G. Nunberg, "All Thumbs," "Fresh Air," NPR, 7/10/08s !4!The Swackhamerist Urge!"Digital natives, those who were born after 1980, process information very differently than those who were not. And so, I think that we are seeing a very long-term trend here in terms of how young people relate to one another, to institutions and to information that is fundamentally different than what came before." John Palfrey, author of Born Digital, "On the Media," Jan. 30, 2009!5!6!The origins of ("true") writing!Glottographic writing: rather than referring directly to ideas or things in the world, signs are associated with elements of the language (words, morphemes, syllables, phonemes). !1.7!Origins of Glottographic Writing!Glottographic writing emerges when symbols stand for elements of language – words, syllables, sounds!Logographic: mod. Chinese, Japanese (mixed)!Syllabic: Linear B, Cherokee, Korean Hangul (featural)!Alphabetic: Roman, Cyrillic, Gk, Hebrew, etc. More-or-less phonetic.!8!8!Development of Written Symbols![!lvIs] /!"/ E /!/ Simplification of sign !Semasiographic/"ideographic!Rebus extension!logographic! syllabic! alphabetic!Proto-writing!"True" (glottographic) Writing!9!Development of phonographic writing!Shift from logographic to syllabic:!Cf English logographs @, &: imagine formation of words like "h@st&." !Where do we see this happen all the time?!10!Development of Written Symbols!Shift from logographic to syllabic:!Cf English logographs @, &: imagine formation of words like "h@st&." !Where does this happen?!11!Origins of Alphabetic Writing!Alphabetic system derived from application of syllabic system to different phonological structures.!Logographic: mod. Chinese, Japanese (mixed)!Syllabic: Linear B, Cherokee, Korean Hangul (featural)!Alphabetic: Roman, Cyrillic, Gk, Hebrew, etc,!Geneology of Writing Systems Origins of major writing systems!But evidence is slight for derivation of Chinese from proto-Sumerian!Invention of the alphabet!Independent writing systems:!The Cherokee Syllabary!13!13!Sequoyah [George Gist] and the "talking leaves": 1819!Independently invented writing systems:!The Cherokee Syllabary!14!14!Cherokee Phoenix: First American Indian newspaper (1828)!Independently invented writing systems:!Korean Hangul!Writing system invented in mid-15th c. to replace hanja (Chinese writing system). Invention sometimes credited to King Sejong ("the Great"), who introduced it to increase mass literacy. Possibly influenced by central Asian scripts. !Sometimes described as only "featural" system: symbols representing sounds as features (i.e., "labial,' etc.) are clustered into a single "block" representing a syllable. !15!Hunmin Jeong-eum Exemplar (1446): Earliest Hangul text!16!(after Jack Goody, The Domestication of the Savage Mind) "advanced/"developed" societies!"complex"/"open"/""domesticated"!"primitive" societies!"simple"/"closed"/""savage"!Writing and the Stages of Culture !17!"advanced/"developed" societies!"complex"/"open"/""domesticated"!Sociology!"primitive" societies!"simple"/"closed"/""savage"!anthropology!Writing and the Stages of Culture !Man as animal is studied primarily by the zoologist, man as talking animal primarily by the anthropologist, and man as talking and writing animal primarily by the sociologist. Jack Goody, The Domestication of the Savage Mind)18!(after Jack Goody, The Domestication of the Savage Mind) "advanced/"developed" societies!"complex"/"open"/""domesticated"!Literacy!Sociology!history!"primitive" societies!"simple"/"closed"/""savage"!Orality!Anthropology!prehistory!Writing and the Stages of Culture !19!Modes of Cultural Transmission in Oral Societies!Oral societies: pass on culture in "long chain of interlocking conversations…" (including rituals, etc.); culture stored in memory.! In [oral] culture, storage and transmission between the generations can be carried on only in individual memories. Linguistic information can be incorporated in a transmissible memory, as against some one person’s memory, only as it obeys two laws of composition: it must be rhythmic and it must be mythical. Eric Havelock, The Coming of Literate Communication to Western Culture Cf the complex metrical formulas of oral poetry…!Milman Parry!20!Modes of Cultural Transmission in Oral Societies!Jack Goody: In oral cultures, no fixity, "dictionary meanings." The "past" is simply a way of interpreting/explaining the present (e.g. of