The Idea of Writing 2016. Writing as a System: Emergence, Variation, Performance

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. The workshop is open to the general academic public, but pre-registration via e-mail to Anna Stryjewska is required.

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Program

Friday, 22 July 2016

14.15 – 14.30	Wolfgang Behr: Words of Welcome
Theme I: Inception, Spread, Transmission
14.30 – 15.00	Silvia Ferrara (Rome) The inception of writing on Crete: towards a synoptic view?
15.00 – 15.15	Coffee
15.15 – 15.45	Theo Vennemann (Ried & Munich) From Punic to Runic - The role of constraints in adopting a writing system
15.45 – 16.15	Robert Kerr (Haarlem) Infectious epigraphomania: From an epidemic to an endemic contagion. Writing in Roman North Africa: Punic, Latin and Berber
16.15 – 16.45	Piers Kelly (Jena) Preconditions for the invention and successful transmission of writing: evidence from recent West African scripts
16.45 – 17.00	Coffee
17.00 – 17.30	Alex de Voogt (New York), Anna Stryjewska (Zurich & Basel) & Erik Harden (New York) Reading Dongba shop sings: from phonetic to fantastic
Theme II: Cognitions, Psychology, Complexity
17.30 – 18.00	Olivier Morin (Jena) The spontaneous emergence of functional complexity in writing systems: The case of cardinal lines
18.00 – 18.30	Karenleigh Overmann (Oxford) Literacy as cognitive change emerging from material engagement
18.30 – 19.00	David Share (Haifa) Foundations of a universal theory of learning to read
19.00 – 19.45	Drinks at eikones
Saturday, 23 July 2016
Theme III: Inventories, Signs and Materiality
09.30 – 10.00	Orly Goldwasser (Jerusalem) Iconicity vs. linearity - the advantage of a system without systematicity
10.00 – 10.30	Annick Payne (Basel) Paths to pa and other signs
10.30 – 10.45	Coffee
10.45 – 11.15	Erik Boot (Rijswijk) Myth and Maya writing: How Moon, Sun God, and Maize God myths extended the Classis Maya sign inventory
11.15 – 11.45	Haeree Park (Hamburg) Chinese Logography or Chinese syllabary
11.45 – 13.30	Lunch
Theme IV: Logography, Phonography, Orthography
13.30 – 14.00	Anna Stryjewska (Zurich & Basel) Sign derivation in Yi writing
14.00 – 14.30	Sven Osterkamp (Bochum) Japanese kana: moraic o syllabic? – Considerations from a synchronic and diachronic perspective
14.30 – 14.45	Coffee
14.45 – 15.15	Keisuke Honda (London) Rethinking morphography in Japanese kanji writing: Synchronic and diachronic perspectives
15.15 – 15.45	Gordian Schreiber (Bochum) A mixed bag - phonography and morphography in Japanese
15.45 – 16.15	Thorsten Traulsen (Bochum) Systematicity in the development of Korean orthography
16.15 – 16.45	Publications plans, next conference etc.

Konzept: Wolfgang Behr, Antonio Loprieno, Annick Payne, Andréas Stauder, Anna Stryjewska

Referierende: Annick Payne, Anna Stryjewska, Erik Boot, Alex DeVoogt, Silvia Ferrara, Orly Goldwasser, Keisuke Honda, Piers Kelly, Robert Kerr, Olivier Morin, Sven Osterkamp, Karenleigh Overmann, Haeree Park, Gordian Schreiber, David Share, Thorsten Traulsen, Theo Vennemann

eikones NFS Bildkritik, Rheinsprung 11, CH - 4051 Basel