CMNS 110 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Walter J. Ong, Oral Tradition, Alliteration

• School: Simon Fraser University
• Department: Communication
• Course: CMNS 110
• Professor: George Zhang

Document Summary

Orality verbal expression in cultures without literate tradition. There have been cultures that lack literate tradition. No communication has as great of impact as writing. Approached the motion of historical development by examining the forms of communication technology that were dominant in each historical era. Historical periods can be classified in different ways. Ongs main interest was how oral societies and literate societies differ: socially, culturally, and educationally. Studying how to change from orality to literacy, changed these significantly. Literacy promotes different attitudes and social implication (as does oriality) Ong: examples of orality importance: testimonies in court must be given orally, orality is important in public debates and political forums, graduates students must complete oral exams, marriage ceremonies important verbal components, apologies must be spoken. Although orality is largely ceremonial in contemporary practices, (ex. Marriage) doesn"t mean that the oral component is unimportant or incidental. Oral cultures never had written tradition,