Roland Posner
Introduction
Alicja Sakaguchi
Plan languages between spontaneity and standardisation.
Semiotics and interlinguistics
Helmut Lüdtke
Language and writing.
Seven theses
Claus W. Wallesch
Writing, its anatomy and physiology
William C. Watt
Degree of systemism
Homogenity of the alphabet writing
Discussion: systemism
Roland Posner
Codes as signs
Wolfgang Wenning
Degrees of visual systemism
Wulf Rehder
Systemism and writing direction
Holger van den Boom
Systemism and coding
Reinhard Köhler und Gabriel Altmann
System theory and semiotics
Enclosure
K. Lothar Hildebrand
Claude Chappe and air telegraphy
Investigation
Annemarie Lange-Seidl
Semiotics at the universities of the Federal Republics of Germany and Austria
and Switzerland
Introduction
Oral language - written language - planned language
Roland Posner, Technical University Berlin
Summary. The article introduces the reader to the problem area of oral language
written language and planned languages by treating the difficulties connected
with attempts to reduce the effort necessary for linguistic communication. An
analysis of examples from the history of numerals and writing systems leads to
the formulation of two principles of notation which guarantee a high degree of
sign economy. The article closes with a discussion of the desirability of an
artifically reglemented world language.
Planned languages between spontaneity and
standardisation. Semiotics and interlinguistics
Alicja Sakaguchi, University of Paderborn
Summary. Interlinguistics studies the possibilities of improving human
communication through revision of the language systems used. The article
defines interlinguistics in the context of semiotics and linguistics and
classifies the various proposals that have been made for interlinguistic
systems. It distinguishes between a priori and a posteriori languages and
between monolinguistic systems, i. e. simplified natural languages, and
polylinguistic systems, i.e. systems developed on the basis of more than one
natural language. Rationalistic systems are contrasted with naturalistic
systems, and attempts at an integration of the various proposed language
systems are discussed. When a planned language is put into use by a
heterogeneous group of people, it tends to undergo spontaneous language change
and to thereby depart from the original planning. The article deals with this
problem and closes by ordering the existing proposals for revised language
systems with respect to the degree of standardization vs spontaneity they
allow.
Language and writing.
Seven theses
Helmut Lüdtke, University of Kiel
Summary. The author puts forward seven theses concerning the empirical
character of linguistics and semiotics, the status of their objects of
investigation, their biological basis and their relationship to the objects of
other disciplines. He focuses on the difference between language and writing,
claiming that writing is to language as an instrument is to the hand. The
concatenation of letters in writing is shown to be a misleading model for the
structure of speech. Language change is regarded as a transition from one
coexisting language variant to another in a system-time continuum.
Writing, its anatomy and physiology
Claus W. Wallesch, University of Freiburg
Summary. The author reviews the anatomical structures and physiological
processes involved in the act of writing. The production of a distinctive form
of handwriting is not bound to the action of one specific group of muscles.
Therefore, control circuits involving peripheral and central nervous structures
have to be postulated. Within the brain, the motor execution of writing is
represented in the cortex, the basal ganglia, and the cerebrellum. However, the
"kinetic melodies" expressed in the invariable features of writing
movements
under varying conditions still escape neurophysiological explanation.
Degree of systemism.
Homogenity of the alphabet writing
William C. Watt, University of California, Irvine
Summary. The article deals with the fact that a set of semiotic elements tends
to be structured and to function as a system. It proceeds from the hypothesis
that the systemhood of a set has to do with its homogeneity and defines degrees
of systemhood on the basis of measures of homogeneity. Three alternative
notions of homogeneity are discussed, a set being considered more homogeneous
in proportion to (1) a more even distribution of attributes, (2) a lower
average of inter-element differences, (3) a greater number of concords over
discords. Whereas the first two notions are demonstrated to be inadequate, the
third is adopted and explicated in the two closely-allied measures of
homogeneity, "xi-homogeneity" and "zeta-homogeneity". The results of
this
theoretical discussion are applied to the description of homogenization
processes that have taken place in the evolution of the General Modern Roman
(GMR) upper-case letters from the archaic Greek and Phoenician. It is shown
that apart from homogeneity there are other evolutionary forces that act upon a
semiotic system: inertia, facilitation, and heterogenization.
