Writing Systems. A Linguistic Introduction.

Sampson, Geoffrey:

ISBN 10: 009156980X / ISBN 13: 9780091569808

Published by London: Hutchinson, 1989

About this Item

234p hardback, scarlet cloth and jacket with gilt characters, very good condition, jacket surfaces a bit creased, name to endpaper and light pencil marks in a few page margins, otherwise free from significant wear, pages very neat and bright, binding firm, a very good pre-owned copy Language: English Weight (g): 788. Seller Inventory # 236124

Bibliographic Details

Title: Writing Systems. A Linguistic Introduction.

Publisher: London: Hutchinson

Publication Date: 1989

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: Very Good

Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included

Edition: 1st Edition

About this title

Synopsis:

To say that writing has as much claim as speech to be treated as language may strike the reader as a statement of the obvious. But the fact is that, although the tide is beginning to turn now, for most of the twentieth century linguistics has almost wholly ignored writing. It is not necessary to accept all the theories of the French critic Jacques Derrida in order to agree with him when he describes writing as "the wandering outcast of linguistics."This book is offered in the belief that written language is a form of language. As such, it deserves to be treated with the methods of modern, scientific linguistic study, which have been increasing our understanding of the spoken form of language for many decades.

Review:

"This book is a readable, non-technical discussion of the nature of scripts as linguistically structured systems. It sensibly discusses the general issues concerning the relation of script to language, and concerning historical change in this relationship. . . . Sampson's research is unique among recent books in the extent to which it makes informed use of non-anecdotal psychological research on reading and spelling in addressing issues of script typology and history. . . . This is a book that can be recommended as the best linguistic introduction to the study of writing systems now available." John Justeson,Language "In this engaging book, Sampson, treating the all-too-long ostracized 'black sheep' of linguistics, offers a refreshing and rigorous contemporary scientific examination of writing cum system. . . . Linguists on all fronts should welcome this text whose contents have undergone the same rigorous examination and discussion as any work on the core problems of language. This work renews an old field of studyand not for trained scientists only, for several arguments here are instructive to the novice." J. Caflisch,ChoiceChoiceChoice