Reading and readability in Complex Writing Systems

Veranstaltungsorte:
Sonntag, 25. Mai: eikones Forum, Rheinsprung 11, 4051 Basel
Montag, 26. Mai: Universität Basel, Rosshof, Seminarraum Schnitz

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. The 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

Programm

Sonntag, 25. Mai 2014

09.00 – 09.15	Greetings, Andréas Stauder (Basel) Introduction, Antonio Loprieno (Basel)
09.15 – 10.15	<media 2421 - - "SONSTIGES, Abstract Marazzi, Abstract_Marazzi.pdf, 50 KB">Massimilano Marazzi (Neapel): Die Sprache der Schrift</media>
10.15 – 11.15	<media 2419 - - "SONSTIGES, Abstract Werning, Abstract_Werning.pdf, 12.7 KB">Daniel Werning: Pragmatic aspects of phonographic and semographic spelling in (cursive) Hieroglyphic-Egyptian texts</media>
Coffee Break
11.30 – 12.30	<media 2420 - - "SONSTIGES, Abstract Wan, Abstract_Wan.pdf, 55 KB">Gianni Wan (Bejing): The logography-phonography continuum based on Peircean semiotics</media>
Lunch
14.00 – 15.00	<media 2413 - - "SONSTIGES, Abstract Annick Payne, Abstract_Annick_Payne.pdf, 33 KB">Annick Payne (Basel): The Use of Determinatives in Hieroglyphic Luwian</media>
15.00 – 16.000	<media 2417 - - "SONSTIGES, Abstract Stauder, Abstract_Stauder.pdf, 13.4 KB">Andréas Stauder (Basel): Talking about reading when there are no readers any mor: Functional aspects of Egytian writing</media>
Coffee Break
16.30 – 17.30	<media 2422 - - "SONSTIGES, Abstract Klotz, Abstract_Klotz.pdf, 29 KB">David Klotz (Yale/Basel): The Readability of Egyptian Hieroglyphs at Esna: A functional approach</media>

 

Montag, 26. Mai 2014

09.00 – 10.00	<media 2414 - - "SONSTIGES, Abstract Eikones Readability D Laboury, Abstract_Eikones_Readability_D_Laboury.pdf, 172 KB">Dimitry Laboury (Liège): Reading and readability of iconic, scriptural and para-scriptural information in the process of making the decoration of Ancient Egyptian monuments</media>
10.00 – 11.00	<media 2423 - - "SONSTIGES, Abstract Maurer, Abstract_Maurer.pdf, 26 KB">Urs Maurer (Zurich): Neural mechanism underlying orthographic processing in normal and dyslexic reading</media>
Coffee Break
11.15 – 12.15	<media 2418 - - "SONSTIGES, Abstract Waal, Abstract_Waal.pdf, 44 KB">Willemijn Waal (Leiden): The Use of Hittite Logogramms</media>
Lunch
14.00 – 15.00	<media 2438 - - "SONSTIGES, Abstract Wolfgang Behr, Abstract_Wolfgang_Behr.pdf, 39 KB">Wolfgang Behr (Zurich): On the relationship between character embellishment, object decoration and readability in Chinese paleography from the Eastern Zhou period</media>
15.00 – 16.00	<media 2437 - - "SONSTIGES, Abstract Prager, Abstract_Prager.pdf, 72 KB">Christian Prager (Bonn): Reading the Unwritten and Writing the Unspoken: A cognitive study of writing and reading in Classis Maya Culture</media>
Coffee Break
16.30 – 17.30	Adam Smith (Pennsylvania): Features distinctive of early writing systems reveal the cognitive preadaptations for literacy
17.30	Conclusion

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

Sonntag, 25. Mai: eikones Forum, Rheinsprung 11 Montag, 26. Mai:Universität Basel, Rosshof, Seminarraum Schnitz