Rethinking Writing

by Roy Harris

Overview

Roy Harris shows that the theory of writing adopted in modern linguistics is deeply flawed. Reversing the orthodox priorities, the author argues that writing is a far more powerful mode of linguistic communication than speech could ever be. His book is a major contribution to current debates about human communication written and spoken.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780826457981
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	04/30/2002
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.57(d)

About the Author

Roy Harris is Emeritus Professor of General Linguistics at the University of Oxford, UK.

Table of Contents

Preface
Foreword: Writing and Civilization
1. Aristotleís Abecedary
2. Structuralism in the Scriptorium
3. Writing Off the Page
4. Notes on Notation
5. Alphabetical Disorder
6. Ideographic Hallucinations
7. On the Dotted Line
8. Beyond the Linguistic Pale
9. Mightier than the Word
Bibliography
Index

256 pages, 9 1/4 x 6 1/4, $39.95s

Editorial Reviews

."..absorbing and typically combatative." Times Literary Supplement

"This is an excellent book, rich, clear and innovative." Jean Khalfa, Cambridge University

."..absorbing and typically combatative."--Times Literary Supplement

From the Publisher

"Noted linguist Harris (emer., Oxford) challenges the assumptions underlying traditional Western views of writing as secondary to speech. Harris applies an integrationist approach to writing, a topic in which he has previously established expertise in such works as The Origin of Writing (1986) and Signs of Writing (1995). In the early chapters of the present work, he systematically dismantles the theories of linguists and philosophers beginning with Aristotle (with emphasis on Saussure) whose seminal ideas about language as essentially oral reduced the status of writing to symbol of speech. Harris finds fault in Saussure's failure to recognize that writing and speech are separate but integrated forms of communication, with writing offering much more than mere representation of sounds. Aided by illustrations and analogies that are sometimes stretched but often ingenious, the volume culminates in discussions of the signature, the experimental writing of such authors as Mallermé (Mallerme) and Joyce, and the computer, through which the possibilities for integrating forms of communication promise a whole new concept of language. A difficult but important work with excellent bibliography and index, this title is recommended for graduate students and professors in linguistics, philosophy, literature, and communication." —C. P. Jamison, Armstrong Atlantic State University, Choice, July 2001

Choice - C. P. Jamison

"Noted linguist Harris (emer., Oxford) challenges the assumptions underlying traditional Western views of writing as secondary to speech. Harris applies an integrationist approach to writing, a topic in which he has previously established expertise in such works as The Origin of Writing (1986) and Signs of Writing (1995). In the early chapters of the present work, he systematically dismantles the theories of linguists and philosophers beginning with Aristotle (with emphasis on Saussure) whose seminal ideas about language as essentially oral reduced the status of writing to symbol of speech. Harris finds fault in Saussure's failure to recognize that writing and speech are separate but integrated forms of communication, with writing offering much more than mere representation of sounds. Aided by illustrations and analogies that are sometimes stretched but often ingenious, the volume culminates in discussions of the signature, the experimental writing of such authors as Mallermé (Mallerme) and Joyce, and the computer, through which the possibilities for integrating forms of communication promise a whole new concept of language. A difficult but important work with excellent bibliography and index, this title is recommended for graduate students and professors in linguistics, philosophy, literature, and communication." —C. P. Jamison, Armstrong Atlantic State University, Choice, July 2001

— C. P. Jamison, Armstrong Atlantic State University

Choice