(with Andréas Stauder, Annick Payne, Antonio Loprieno, Anna Stryjewska) Reading and Readability in Complex Writing Systems: Phonography – Logography – Visual Density

workshop program: Reading and Readability in Complex Writing Systems: Phonography – Logography – Visual Density

Abstract:
""This workshop aims to explore the multivalent relationship between reading and readability and different modes of written representation in complex systems of writing. Readability can be affected in various ways, i.e. it can be being enhanced or impaired, depending on the modes of written representation along the phonography – logography continuum or on the visual density, iconicity or salience of the written
sign. Studying these aspects is central to a comparative typology of complex writing systems, to the functional and cognitive determinations of reading in them, and to the various cultural significations which can be embodied in and expressed by writing in general.

One tenacious myth holds, for example, that a higher degree or frequency of phonographic writing should correspond to easier access to the written sequence in processing. This view implies a quasi-evolutionary, tacitly teleological optimization of writing, the crowning achievement of which would be pure phonography. Yet, this stands in stark contrast to both the historically documented development of complex, mixed phono-logographic writing systems such as Egyptian, Chinese, or Anatolian hieroglyphs and the dual modes of reading via both phonetic and lexical pathways as formulated in current cognitive models of the reading process. Readability issues can arise from both phonetic and logographic modes of writing, and need to be further differentiated, taking into consideration the more detailed configurations of different systems of writing and, very likely, their different readers. For example, strongly phonographic realizations of e.g. the Egyptian writing system (such as in texts from the Saite period through to the 30th Dynasty, ca. 650-330 BCE) turn out to be among the most difficult ones to read, for both present-day Egyptologists and, arguably, for the Egyptians themselves. Moreover, readability may be strongly influenced by ‘paragrammatological’ features such as punctuation, the usage of diacritics and matres lectionis, spacing and mise-en-page.

A similar misconception is that a higher degree of figurative density of signs of writing will naturally translate into a higher density of meaning being conveyed in a fairly ‘direct’ fashion. Yet enhanced figurative density can also result in making a linguistic message less immediately accessible: a higher visual resolution of signs often triggers the highlighting other dimensions, such as the sign as a visual form, possibly even as an ‘immediately depictive’ one. This can cause a layering of possible levels of signification which, in turn, can make reading considerably less immediate. Under other circumstances and in different ways, reduced iconicity may also impair reading, whenever, for example, a certain relationship between the more and less iconic parts in the written representation of a word is integral to the recognition and lexical retrieval of that word or its boundaries. Thus, there may well be a certain balance—which may vary cross-culturally as well as historically or synchronically— between phonographical and logographical modes of representation that underpins the
functionality of reading in complex writing systems. Similar considerations apply to the figurative density and visual resolution of signs of writing in such systems. These two dimensions of written representation intersect one another in various intricate ways, such that approaches separating the two modes would seem well-nigh impossible. The cross-cultural variance of such configurations and their limitations
provides a strong heuristic for the study of the functional determination of reading. Much may also be learned from experimental studies of the cognitive processes of reading in (complex) writing systems within living traditions, for instance in China and Japan. Cognitive and neuropsychological approaches may shed new light on seemingly basic, yet traditionally largely unexplored, issues such as the visual
resolution, intra-systemic distinctiveness, and salience of sign forms. Of major interest is also a detailed empirical study of the various types of deviations, or breaches, from ‘regular’ modes of written representation, whether on systemic or on visual levels. Studies of such deviations from common modes of written representations may reveal various otherwise hidden aspects of how a given writing system functions in regular performance.

Accordingly, this workshop pursues a reader-oriented perspective on complex writing systems, naturally extending to other pertinent aspects of literacy. As various historical configurations document or suggest, the degree of figurativeness of a given realization in a given script may correlate with different anthropologies of writing, while other meaningful correlations may be encoded in the degrees to which variation
in orthography and spelling is curbed. In different traditions, the relative degree of phonography and logography in a specified usage of a script may further correlate with register, and thereby with the sociology of literacy, but also with other cultural determinants beyond the intended audience. Last but not least, the reconstruction of specific historical contexts in which more marked breaches from regular forms of a writing system were licensed and did in fact occur are of particular relevance.

Topics to be addressed by the workshop include the following:

- Reading and readability in relation to the logography – phonography continuum;
- Reading and readability in relation to the figurative density, visual resolution, and iconic density of signs of writing;
- Cognitive approaches to the reading process;
- Reading as an inferential process underlying the reciprocal disambiguation of signs of writing within a given word or within a given written sequence;
- Clues given to and games played with the reader in contexts of particularly complex or ludic writing; complicated readings encoded in different manners (playful, cryptographic, enigmatic spellings, etc.), viewed from a theoretical perspective;
- Different modes of reading in regular performance and in extended usages of writing systems; breaching of conventional modes of written representation within a given tradition and the resulting effects on readability;
- Varying degrees of readability in relation to the visibility, placement, and materiality of writing and their intentions;
- The comparative typology of complex writing systems, domains of variability and limits thereof; motivations for major diachronic changes in complex writing systems throughout history;
- Contrasts along the phonography – logography continuum and in visual density in relation to sociologies and registers of writing;
- Definitions of literacy levels (e.g. illiteracy, partial/limited literacy, crafts literacy, scholarly literacy, disconnection of reading and writing skills) and associated questions (e.g. communicative powers of logograms/determinatives via recognizable shapes of the object depicted/indicated); placement of reading skills along the orality – literacy and textual familiarity – novelty scales in
ancient societies, embedding in ‘textual communities’ of production, reception, and education.