LINGUIST List 14.623

Tue Mar 4 2003

Qs: Writing Systems, Literature and Variation

Editor for this issue: Naomi Fox <foxlinguistlist.org>

FUND DRIVE 2003 Please help us reach our total of $50,000 by making a donation at: http://linguistlist.org/donation.html The LINGUIST List depends on the generous contributions from subscribers like you; we would not be able to operate without your help. The moderators, staff, and student editors at LINGUIST would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your continuous support. We'd like to remind readers that the responses to queries are usually best posted to the individual asking the question. That individual is then strongly encouraged to post a summary to the list. This policy was instituted to help control the huge volume of mail on LINGUIST; so we would appreciate your cooperating with it whenever it seems appropriate. In addition to posting a summary, we'd like to remind people that it is usually a good idea to personally thank those individuals who have taken the trouble to respond to the query. To post to LINGUIST, use our convenient web form at http://linguistlist.org/LL/posttolinguist.html.

Directory

  1. bender, Writing systems and reading speeds
  2. bender, Sociolinguistics and comparative literature

Message 1: Writing systems and reading speeds

 Date: Mon, 3 Mar 2003 11:33:22 -0800 (PST)
From: bender <bendercsli.Stanford.EDU>
Subject: Writing systems and reading speeds

Dear colleagues,

I remember hearing or reading about a study which found
that proficient readers of Chinese read faster than
proficient readers of English, and both read faster
than proficient readers of Spanish. The explanation was
that in the Chinese writing system, words have distinctive
visual properties, allowing readers to read them quickly.
English, because of its spelling irregularities, also
has many words with distinctive shapes. Apparently, 
proficient readers of alphabetic systems also often
recognize whole words, rather than reading off the sounds.
The more distinctive the word-shapes, the faster this
goes. The good sound-graph correspondence in Spanish
leads to less distinctive word-shapes and therefore slower
reading.

Can anyone point me to a reference for this study?

Many thanks,

Emily M. Bender
Stanford University
Mail to author|Respond to list|Read more issues|LINGUIST home page|Top of issue

Message 2: Sociolinguistics and comparative literature

 Date: Mon, 3 Mar 2003 11:35:46 -0800 (PST)
From: bender <bendercsli.Stanford.EDU>
Subject: Sociolinguistics and comparative literature

Posting a question for a student:

Does anyone know of work applying sociolinguistic notions
of variation and style to comparative literature? How
about any other cross-over studies involving the two fields?

Many thanks,

Emily M. Bender
Stanford University
Mail to author|Respond to list|Read more issues|LINGUIST home page|Top of issue