Writing and Language The Chinese Writing System: Origins and Development • So far in this course we have talked almost exclusively about spoken language CHIN 342/442 • For linguists, spoken language is primary • A linguistic analysis of writing proceeds from its relationship to spoken language: Autumn 2019 writing represents speech Goals What is Writing? • Definition of writing • Example 1: “banana” • Classification of writing systems • Example 2: “ ” • Origins of Chinese writing • Examples 3: 4: 5: – the rebus principle • How can we define writing? • Early development of Chinese writing Suggestions? – semantic determinatives • Narrow definition: “The representation of – simplification and conventionalization speech through persistent visual marks” Definition of Writing This would be writing too! • We could define writing more broadly: “The communication of ideas through visual marks” • This definition is too broad for linguistic analysis p. 1 Definition of Writing Definition of Writing • Linguistic definition of writing • Our definition reflects the idea that (repeated): writing is a method for projecting speech • “The representation of speech through across time and space, thus overcoming persistent visual marks” its inherent dimensional limitations • Two different speakers of the same language, looking at the same piece of writing, will produce the same utterance Writing vs. Speech Writing System • Sounds (consonants & vowels), syllables, • “One or more scripts (= sets of graphs) morphemes, words are all elements of together with a set of rules specifying spoken language; they exist prior to and how those graphs are used to represent independently of written forms elements of a particular spoken • Graphs (letters, Chinese characters, etc.) language.” are basic elements of writing systems • The English and Italian writing systems • We carefully distinguish them; we will use the same script (the Roman alphabet), explore the relationship between them but with different rules of representation Classification of Writing What do modern Chinese Systems characters represent? • Alphabetic: Each graph represents a • Individual sounds like [b]? NO single sound (like [b], [i], [l]) • Individual syllables? NO example: Spanish: b, i, l – jī, dōng, shì (compare mǔjī and fēijī) • Syllabic: Each graph represents a syllable • Individual words? NO (like [ka], [mi]) – xuésheng ‘student’, fēijī ‘airplane’ example: Japanese hiragana: , • Most Chinese characters represent single • Logographic: Each graph represents a morphemes that are one syllable long morpheme (like {[pʰai] ‘pie’}) • mǔjī ‘hen’; fēijī ‘airplane’ p. 2 Morphosyllabographs? Characters Don’t Represent ... • Morphosyllabographic? We will stick • Myths and half-truths with the term logographic. –“Chinese characters write words.” • When morphemes and syllables don’t –“Chinese characters are pictures.” coincide, there are exceptions to the –“Chinese characters represent ideas.” “graph : one-syllable morpheme” pattern • We have already seen that many – The subsyllabic morpheme -r (/) characters write bound morphemes – Bi- and trisyllabic morphemes like pútáo ( (which are not words), e.g. ; many ), tǎnkè (), kāfēi (), qiǎokèlì () words are written with 2 characters: Characters Don’t Represent ... Characters Don’t Represent ... • “Chinese characters are pictures.” • “Chinese characters represent ideas.” • As we shall see, some Chinese characters • How many English words can you think are pictographic in origin, but most of that express the idea of “to talk” ? characters (like / writing biàn Talk, speak, converse, tell, … ‘change’) are in no sense pictographic • Mandarin words? • So this is half-true at best • Chinese characters are not ideographic: / cannot write jiǎng, tán, or gàosu Origins of Writing Origins of Writing • Writing has been independently invented • Many details are unknown, but the by humans only 4 times (as far as we general history is clear in all four cases know!) • There is a crucial moment when visual –Sumerian cuneiform (ca. 3200 BCE) symbols that are not writing become –Egyptian hieroglyphs (ca. 3100 BCE) writing –Chinese characters (ca. 1250 BCE) • Want to see an illustration of that key –Mayan hieroglyphs (ca. 4th c. BCE) moment in human history? p. 3 The Invention of Writing The Invention of Writing Non-Writing Writing Want to see it again? The Invention of Writing The Invention of Writing Non-Writing Writing elephant “elephant” Development of a Full Writing Origins of Writing System • Writing begins when a picture of an • Stage 1: pictographs create writing, object changes into a representation of a enable some words to be represented word (which we call a pictograph) • Stage 2: the rebus principle extends • This is a change inside the minds of a writing to all words of the language community of script users • Stage 3: semantic determinatives are • But: Pictographs can only write a subset added to disambiguate graphic usage of words; this is not sufficient for a full • Stage 4: simplification, stylization, writing system conventionalization p. 4 Summary of 3 Stages Examples *mut *mut *zaŋʔ *zaŋʔ *rə *rə • (On board, examples of Stages 1-3 for ‘creature’ ‘do not’ ‘elephant’ ‘image’ ‘grain’ ‘come’ “English” as a thought experiment, and Stage 1: for the real history of Chinese writing) pictograph – – – Stage 2: rebus Stage 3: disambiguation – Oracle Bone Inscriptions Oracle Bone Inscription • Oracle bones: ritually inscribed royal divinatory texts from Shāng dynasty • They are the earliest confirmed examples of Chinese writing (from mid-13th c. BCE) • They reveal a fully developed writing system, capable of representing all grammatical morphemes • See turtle plastron in the course packet Why do written forms change Oracle Bone Characters over time? 曰 yuē 其 qí • Drawing pictures is slow and cumbersome 好 hǎo • As writing becomes more widely used, 王 wáng there is pressure for speed and efficiency • Pictures become simpler and more 不 bù 女 nǚ abstract, losing their pictographic quality • As a result conventionalization becomes more crucial to distinguish graphs p. 5 Simplification, Stylization, The Qín Standardization Conventionalization • Chinese writing becomes simpler and • At the end of the 3rd century BCE, Qín more stylized throughout the Western conquered and united all of China Zhōu and Warring States periods • The new standard writing was based on • Distinct developments in different Qín forms, which in general were more kingdoms complex, with longer curved lines The Qín Standardization Media • The Qín standard is known as • Changes in writing materials (tools and “seal script” zhuànshū / or surfaces) also affect the form of graphs “small seal” xiǎozhuàn • A brush on paper will produce different kinds of lines than carving into bone or impressing into clay • Small seal script is characterized by lines of even thickness and graceful curves; it is not written with a brush Media Display Style • In the Hàn dynasty, clerks wrote • Highly stylized forms of Chinese writing increasingly large amounts of continued to be used in monumental bureaucratic records display works, like ritual bronzes • The bureaucratic need for speed and use • Zhōngshān bronze (310 BCE) forms: of brushes on paper led to development of clerical script lìshū / • At the end of the Hàn this developed into (b) (a) (e) (c) (d) standard script kǎishū / Can you identify (a) , (b) , (c) , (d) , (e) ? p. 6 Next End • Traditional Chinese classification of • Want to know more about the world character structure history of writing? Take Asian 404! • 20th century developments in Chinese (Spring 2020) writing (including Cantonese!) • Romanizations, transcriptions, and writing reforms p. 7.