CeJ jannuzi at gmail.com
CB:>>But they changed qualitatively when they became alphabetic and no longer pictographic. There was a revolution in their "descent" when they shifted to alphabetic. They qualitatively shifted from iconic to arbitrary representation.<< I doubt if they ever were truly iconic. ^^^ CB: Check out Mixtec or Aztec picture writing. ^^^ In the shift to represent glottographic speech, the arbitrary quickly intrudes itself. ^^^^ CB: That's correct, and that's my point here. ^^^ Chinese characters are in effect as arbitrary as a syllabary or an alphabet. ^^^ CB: No not as abitrary. That's why there are so many characters in Chinese writing. ^^^^ That is not to say, though, that any of these are ENTIRELY arbitrary. For example, quite unarbitrararily, English spelling points out word length ^^^^^^^ CB: I don't understand what you mean here ^^^^ (and at least hints at syllables), word breaks, and most importantly, word relationships. Not iconic, but linguistically motivated. English spelling balances phonetic/phonological with morphemic/lexical elements, making it look a lot like French. Or, if you will, a Germanic language in terms of pronunciation, looking like a Latin language. This message has been scanned for malware by SurfControl plc. www.surfcontrol.com _______________________________________________ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
