Writing and Society: An Introduction

194 Pages·2013·1.528 MB·English

by  Florian Coulmas

more information - www.cambridge.org/9781107016422

WritingandSociety:AnIntroduction
Howdoeswritingrelatetospeech?Whatimpactdoesithaveon
social organization and development? How do unwritten lan-
guagesdifferfromthosethathaveawrittenformandtradition?
Thisbookisageneralaccountoftheplaceofwritinginsociety.
Drawingoncontemporaryandhistoricalexamples,fromclay
tabletstotouch-screendisplays,thebookexploresthefunctions
ofwritingandwrittenlanguage,analysingtheirconsequences
for language, society, economy and politics. It examines the
social causes of illiteracy, demonstrating that institutions of
central importance to modern society are built upon writing
and written texts, and are characterized by specific forms of
communication. It explores the social dimensions of spelling
andwritingreform,aswellasofdigitalliteracy,anewmodeof
expressionandcommunicationposingnovelchallengestothe
studentoflanguageinsociety.
florian coulmas is Director of the German Institute for
JapaneseStudies(DIJ)inTokyo.
KEY TOPICS IN SOCIOLINGUISTICS
Serieseditor:RajendMesthrie
Thisnewseriesfocussesonthemaintopicsofstudyinsociolinguistics
today.Itconsistsofaccessibleyetchallengingaccountsofthemost
importantissuestoconsiderwhenexaminingtherelationshipbetween
languageandsociety.Sometopicshavebeenthesubjectofsociolinguistic
studyformanyyears,andareherere-examinedinthelightofnew
developmentsinthefield;othersareissuesofgrowingimportancethat
havenotsofarbeengivenasustainedtreatment.Writtenbyleading
experts,thebooksintheseriesaredesignedtobeusedoncoursesandin
seminars,andincludeusefulsuggestionsforfurtherreadingandahelpful
glossary.
Alreadypublishedintheseries:
PolitenessbyRichardJ.Watts
LanguagePolicybyBernardSpolsky
DiscoursebyJanBlommaert
AnalyzingSociolinguisticVariationbySaliA.Tagliamonte
LanguageandEthnicitybyCarmenFought
StylebyNikolasCoupland
WorldEnglishesbyRajendMesthrieandRakeshBhatt
LanguageandIdentitybyJohnEdwards
AttitudestoLanguagebyPeterGarrett
LanguageAttritionbyMonikaS.Schmid
Forthcomingtitles:
SociolinguisticFieldworkbyNatalieSchilling
Writing and Society
An Introduction
florian coulmas
cambridge university press
Cambridge,NewYork,Melbourne,Madrid,CapeTown,
Singapore,Sa˜oPaulo,Delhi,MexicoCity
CambridgeUniversityPress
TheEdinburghBuilding,Cambridgecb28ru,UK
PublishedintheUnitedStatesofAmericabyCambridgeUniversityPress,NewYork
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Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781107602434
©FlorianCoulmas2013
Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception
andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements,
noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten
permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress.
Firstpublished2013
PrintedandboundintheUnitedKingdombytheMPGBooksGroup
AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
LibraryofCongressCataloguinginPublicationdata
Coulmas,Florian,author.
WritingandSociety:AnIntroduction/FlorianCoulmas.
pages cm.–(Keytopicsinsociolinguistics)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN978-1-107-01642-2(hardback)
1.Writing Socialaspects. 2.Writtencommunication Socialaspects.
3.Literacy Socialaspects. I.Title.
P211.7.C69 2012
302.2(cid:2)244–dc23 2012022015
isbn978-1-107-01642-2Hardback
isbn978-1-107-60243-4Paperback
CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceor
accuracyofURLsforexternalorthird-partyinternetwebsitesreferredto
inthispublication,anddoesnotguaranteethatanycontentonsuch
websitesis,orwillremain,accurateorappropriate.
Contents
Listofillustrations pagevi
Listoftables vii
Preface ix
Acknowledgements xi
1 Thetyrannyofwritingandthedominanceofvernacular
speech 1
2 Thepastinthepresentandtheseedsofthepublicsphere 19
3 Writtenandunwrittenlanguage 39
4 Literacyandinequality 60
5 Thesocietyofletters 81
6 Writingreform 104
7 Writingandliteracyinthedigitalizedworld 126
Notes 152
Bibliography 155
Index 171
v
Illustrations
2.1 Bottom-upitemoflinguisticlandscape:ostraconbearingthe
nameofPeriklesXanthippos.http://commons.wikimedia.org/
wiki/File:Perikles_Ostracization.jpg page20
2.2 Top-downitemoflinguisticlandscape:CodexHammurabi
(c.1780BCE) 24
2.3 Egyptianobeliskdatingfrom595–589BCE,broughttoRomein
10BCEbyEmperorAugustus;todayinfrontoftheItalian
parliamentbuildingonPiazzadiMontecitorio(photograph:
author) 33
2.4 Inthepublicsphere:readingthenewspaper.Honor´eDaumier,
LeCharivari,1847(usedwithpermission,EuropeanNewspaper
Museum,Krefeld,Germany) 36
4.1 PoliticalpartysymbolsallowingilliterateIndianstocast
theirvote 67
5.1 Theletterofthelawvsthespiritofthelaw((cid:3)C CartoonStock,
usedwithpermission) 84
6.1 Asimplemodelofdecisionmakingforwritingreform 107and123
6.2 Arealisticmodelofdecisionmakingforwritingreform 124
7.1 Thewritingonthewall 129
7.2 SampleofAmericanSignLanguageWriting(usedwith
permissionwww:si5s.com/) 136
7.3 Then:Speaker’sCornerinLondon,1933,addressingthose
withinearshot(licensedbyGettyImages) 142
7.4 Now:WikiLeaks,2010,addressingtheworld(thisfileislicensed
undertheCreativeCommonsAttribution-ShareAlike3.0
Unportedlicence) 143
7.5 Then:DenisDiderot’sEncyclop´edie,1750 148
7.6 Now:Anencyclopediathatanyonecanedit 149
vi
Tables
3.1 Amatrixforlanguagesasresources page40
3.2 Sumerianasaresource 40
3.3 Frenchasaresource 40
3.4 Occitanasaresource 41
3.5 Spokenandwrittenlanguage 57
4.1 FunctionalilliteracyandlowincomeinselectedOECD
countries 64
4.2 Consumptionoftwonewspapersbysocioeconomicstatus 65
4.3 Minority-languagesliteracy 78
6.1 CyrilliclettersandtheirRomanequivalents 115
6.2 Germanspelling,oldandnew,someexamples 118
7.1 Textingjargon 131
vii