B1715 - Writing Systems (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

At the end of this course the student will recognise the varieties of ancient and modern scripts, the types and graphotactic articulations of all writing systems in the world. Particular attention will be given to the graphic and symbolic characteristics of written language. The student thus acquires knowledge on the fundamental aspects of written language and the cultural and phonetic choices connected to them.

Course contents

The Course focuses on the diversity of scripts, both ancient and modern, on the importance of writing in cultural evolution, the different strategies involved in notating language and sounds, and graphotactic rules in different writing systems from all over the world.

 

NB: A section of the Course will include a progressive and incremental series of experiments to create logo-syllabaries from zero, which will see the active participation of the students, who will actively choose rules to create them.

 

The themes of the Course are as follows:

1. The various definitions of writing, and the categories of linguistic notation  (ideograms, logograms, sillabograms, etc)

2. Relationship between writing and language, phonographic and morphographic systems.

3. Internal structures of scripts and their varieties (grafemes, allographs, etc.

4. Sociolinguistics of writing.

5. Evolution of scripts.

 

Cases considered:

Modern scripts: Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamite, alphabets (from Polynesian examples to Western alphabets)

Ancient scripts: cuneiform, Egyptian, Mediterranean syllabaries, Semitic scripts.

Modern semasiography.

Experiments to create the logo-sillabari supervision.

Readings/Bibliography

Essential Bibliography

Robinson, A. Writing and Script : A Very Short Introduction. 1st ed.. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.

Rogers, H. Writing Systems A Linguistic Approach. Malden: Blackwell, 2005.

 

Further Bibliography

This will be distributed in class or uploaded on the Virtuale platform.

 

NON-ATTENDING STUDENTS

Non-attending students are required to follow a specific programme that is agreed upon directly with the course convenor (Silvia Ferrara). The bibliography required for attending students is intended for non-attending students as well.

 

Teaching methods

Lectures and interactive participation, with presentations prepared by the students. For this Course, experiments on the creation of logosyllabic writing systems are planned, which require attendance.

Assessment methods

Assessment revolves around:

1. A final oral exam. The exam is geared towards assessing the student's critical thinking and capacity to juggle the varieties of ancient and modern scripts.  
   
2. Individual pptx presentation on a specific topic: this is optional.

Teaching tools

The Course webpage on VIRTUALE contains all the material relevant to the subject, with the addition of several extra resources to gain more advanced knowledge.

Office hours

See the website of Silvia Ferrara