What do you think?
Rate this book
Signs of Writing
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.
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.
214 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1995
About the author
Roy Harris
154 books15 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
Roy Harris is Emeritus Professor of General Linguistics in the University of Oxford and Honorary Fellow of St Edmund Hall. He has also held university teaching posts in Hong Kong, Boston and Paris and visiting fellowships at universities in South Africa and Australia, and at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study.
Roy Harris is Emeritus Professor of General Linguistics in the University of Oxford and Honorary Fellow of St Edmund Hall. He has also held university teaching posts in Hong Kong, Boston and Paris and visiting fellowships at universities in South Africa and Australia, and at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
October 6, 2014
This is simply excellent. Short, too. Bought myself a copy and am really looking forward to re-reading it with pencil in hand.
Communication itself, whatever form it takes, is an integration of activities, rather than a separate form of activity carried out in addition to others; and the product of that integration, as well as its enabling mechanism, is the sign.
In the case of writing, the activities that have to be integrated for communication to take place are designated globally, but vaguely, by the traditional terms writing and reading. Biomechanically, the two are independent (as is shown by the possibility of being able to read without being able to write); but as constituents of the process of communication they are interdependent. In other words, whatever can in principle be written must in principle be readable. The two types of activity are linked semiologically by a relationship of reciprocal presupposition.
An integrational approach to writing rests upon this single premiss and on the development of its theoretical implications.
Self-evidently true as the basic premiss may seem, the fact remains that no semiological study has hitherto examined the consequences that may be drawn from it as a foundation for the study of writing (5-6).
Communication itself, whatever form it takes, is an integration of activities, rather than a separate form of activity carried out in addition to others; and the product of that integration, as well as its enabling mechanism, is the sign.
In the case of writing, the activities that have to be integrated for communication to take place are designated globally, but vaguely, by the traditional terms writing and reading. Biomechanically, the two are independent (as is shown by the possibility of being able to read without being able to write); but as constituents of the process of communication they are interdependent. In other words, whatever can in principle be written must in principle be readable. The two types of activity are linked semiologically by a relationship of reciprocal presupposition.
An integrational approach to writing rests upon this single premiss and on the development of its theoretical implications.
Self-evidently true as the basic premiss may seem, the fact remains that no semiological study has hitherto examined the consequences that may be drawn from it as a foundation for the study of writing (5-6).
Displaying 1 of 1 review