Florian Coulmas
Introduction
Elmar Holenstein
Double articulation in writing
Konrad Ehlich
The development of writing as social problem solving
Florian Coulmas
Writing development, writing processing: origin and method of functioning of
Japanese writing
Herbert E. Brekle
Grapheme-theoretical comments in
Benedetto Buommattei's Della Lingua Toscana (1643)
Enclosure
Siegfried J. Schmidt
Stamped aphorisms
Analysis
Helmut Schnelle
Critical comments with the help of N. Goodman's Languages of Art
Discussion
Elmar Holenstein
The semiotic function of the Euler circles and their historical alternatives
Christoph Hubig
Reply to Holenstein's comments about the semiotic function of the Euler circles
Double articulation in writing
Elmar Holenstein, Ruhr-University Bochum
Summary. Apart from the genetic code, double articulation seems to be a
privilege of human signs. It implies a specific cognitive competence, the use
of tools to build other tools. Generally, in nonlinguistic sign systems with a
double articulation the signs of the second articulation are metaphorically
used signs of an old first articulation: Signs that were originally
sensedeterminative are transformed into sense-discriminative signs. In scripts
one finds, in addition to this kind of origin, transformations of genuinely
senseless elements into sense-discriminative signs. In this case well-shaped
geometric figures are favoured. The double articulation of this kind has
primarily an economic motivation. This motivation gains in weight through the
technization of scripts.
The development of writing as social problem
solving
Konrad Ehlich, University of Düsseldorf
Summary. The ancient Middle East writing systems give a good example for the
development of writing systems in general. Writing systems are the result of
social efforts to overcome the transient character of speech acts. Starting
from ancient "count stones" (9000-2000 B.C.), the Sumerian cuneiform script
was
created as a complex, mainly ideographic, system of language representation.
The strategy of problem solving which was applied by the inventors of the
cuneiform script can be analyzed semiotically. The complex nature of the
linguistic signs proved the ideographic system to be insufficient. In
consequence, the phonic dimension of the linguistic sign was made use of to
establish better writing systems. The Akkadian syllabic script was a first but
insatisfactory solution which followed this line of development. The semitic
consonant script constituted a qualitatively new solution which was further
elaborated with the type of the Greek consonant-vowel-alphabet.
Writing development, writing processing: origin and
method of functioning of Japanese writing
Florian Coulmas, University of Düsseldorf
Summary. The Japanese writing system is the result of adapting the Chinese
script for writing a typologically utterly different and unrelated language.
The semiotic relations involved in this system are shown to be incomparably
more complex than those characteristic of alphabetic writing systems. In spite
of this, it is argued that, as a result of the peculiar nature of kanji,
language and writing are more closely realted in Japanese than in
alphabetically written languages. Two reasons for this claim are discussed: (1)
the historical development of the Japanese writing system, and (2) the
functional conditions of its perceptual and mental processing.
Grapheme-theoretical comments in
Benedetto Buommattei's Della Lingua Toscana (1643)
Herbert E. Brekle, University of Regensburg
Summary. The following remarks can be considered as a kind of historical
foot-note to the topic of this issue. I do not intend to depict any historical
relationships between different graphematic positions that have been advocated
by various scholars in the course of the history of linguistics. So far, the
necessary preparatory investigations for an undertaking of this kind are almost
completely lacking. Instead, I will attempt a brief discussion of the essential
views of a particular grammarian whose work marks the transition between
Renaissance and rationalism.
Enclosure
Stamped aphorisms
Siegfried J. Schmidt, University of Bielefeld
Summary. The past decades have witnessed the spread of a kind of graphical
representation of texts apart from writing and printing: stamping. As yet,
little has been said or thought about it in a general semiotic sense. Hence my
contribution deals with stamping. The focus of my concern is on the stamping of
those text producers who belong, in the widest sense, to Concrete Poetry.
