1887
Volume 37, Issue 3
  • ISSN 0302-5160
  • E-ISSN: 1569-9781
USD
Buy:$35.00 + Taxes

Abstract

Modern linguistics textbooks devote little, if any, space to writing systems. Shifting our attention from naming precursors or proto-theories to reading earlier language study and linguistics as theorizing and description, the present paper explores ancient and early medieval concepts of the letter in terms of the semiotics of written language and the emergence of textual consciousness in manuscript culture. Early concepts and uses of the letter in alphabetic writing were ambiguous, multilayered, and occasionally contested, but they were not confused. Ancient and early medieval concepts of the letter were based on a semiotics of language and writing which connected spoken and visual signs as multimodal textual activity. Theories of the letter included: (a) the written character (gramma, littera) is a visual sign signifying a particular sound or group of sounds; (b) letters can function as arbitrary second-order signifying systems, such as numbers or diacritics; (c) different alphabets are rooted in the history of peoples although the Roman alphabet is a plastic medium for inscribing the emerging European vernaculars; (d) letters are material substances; (e) the written character is a mute sign; (f) the written character is imperfect or incomplete when detached from sound and the practice of reading aloud.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1075/hl.37.3.01ams
2010-01-01
2025-04-21
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/content/journals/10.1075/hl.37.3.01ams
Loading
  • Article Type: Research Article
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was successful
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error