The idea of Writing 2016: "Writing as a System: Emergence, Variation, Performance

Abstract:
While notions of “systematicity”, “system pressure”, “paradigm systematics” etc. have been very productively explored in the study of language, cognition and other complex semiotic domains, the question of what constitutes a system of writing as a system and how such systems influence writing development, has hardly been explored so far, especially with regard to complex writing systems. It is unclear, for instance, whether graphic systems for the representation of language(s) can be better analysed under a rule-based or a constraint-based approach; whether the diachronic development of the system is governed by “invisible-hand” processes of self-organisation, only perceivable in hindsight; or if its stabilisation is typically driven by external (“top-down”) norms governing orthographies more or less strongly than by internal (“autopoeitic”) processes and pressures. What is the role of usage-based (“performance-based”) effects on writing systems, such as frequency, saliency or graphic distinctiveness vis-à-vis other signs, during both the initial creation and subsequent maintenance of signs constituting a writing system? Is the maintenance of complex writing across time facilitated via loops of perception and production through “naturally” occurring oppositions within writing systems – such as parsability into (primarily) semantic and phonetic components, confrontation of different ranges of stroke density within a graph, secondary harnessing of (pseudo-)iconic vs. non-iconic elements, or contingent upon influences from different writing materials and supports?
It is questions of this kind which the workshop intends to address, although – in the good tradition of the previous “Idea of Writing” meetings since 2004 – other topics related to complex or under-researched writing systems do feature in the programme.