Signs of Writing - Softcover

Harris, Roy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0415756324 ISBN 13: 9780415756327

Publisher: Routledge, 2014

Synopsis

In Signs of Writing Roy Harris re-examines basic questions about writing that have long been obscured by the traditional assumption that writing is merely a visual substitute for speech.
By treating writing as an independent mode of communication, based on the use of spatial relations to connect events separated in time, the author shows how musical, mathematical and other forms of writing obey the same principles as verbal writing. These principles, he argues, apply to texts of all kinds: a sonnet, a symphonic score, a signature on a cheque and a supermarket label. Moreover, they apply throughout the history of writing, from hieroglyphics to hypertext.
This is the first book to provide a new general theory of writing in over forty years. Signs of Writing will be essential reading for anyone interested in language and communication.

About this title

About the Author

Roy Harris is Emeritus Professor of General Linguistics at Oxford University and is the author of numerous publications, including The Language-Makers, The Language Myth, The Language Machine and The Origin of Writing.

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0415756324
• ISBN 13: 9780415756327
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 208