1887
Volume 5, Issue 2
  • ISSN 2214-9953
  • E-ISSN: 2214-9961
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Abstract

Abstract

The grapheme and symbol has been documented as relatively indeterminate and polysemic (e.g. Gale, 2015). Yet, various typographic, orthographic and other design choices make it particularly salient in the contemporary semiotic landscape. The paper starts by outlining briefly the history of the changing uses and associations of in different areas of social life. This is followed by discussion of the typographic and orthographic salience of , emphasizing its unique, unsettling, and ‘foreignizing’ effect on displayed language. The paper concludes by linking the salience of with a global verbal-visual register that I have called ‘globalese’ (Jaworski, 2015a), and by briefly pointing to its origins in the typographic experiments of avant-garde art.

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2019-07-22
2025-04-30
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