ANT253H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Marcel Danesi, The Gutenberg Galaxy, Stylometry
Professor Marcel Danesi Mar. 28, 2017
ANT253 LECTURE 8
WRITING & SOCIETY
• Images are often used to make language independent
Ex. the girl and boy symbols on bathroom doors represent the words, so that people
don’t mix up even if they don’t speak the language
• Pictograph = picture symbol for a referent
Ex. the picture of an eye standing for an eye
• Ideograph/Ideogram = picture or combination of pictures or visual forms standing for
something (a series of pictographs united together can be considered Ideographs)
Ex. the “No Smoking” sign (smoking cigarette with the circle and line through it on top)
Logograph/Logogram = symbol that stands for a morpheme
Ex. & sign standing for “and”
• Phonograph/Phonogram = symbol designed to approximate how a morpheme of
phoneme is pronounced
Ex. the palatal sound in Italian “sociale” (social) can be approximated with English letters
as “sohchahleh”
• Alphabet
• Japanese syllabaries the hiragana and the katakana
• Literate societies, like ours, depend on the written word
• The more oral we become, the more fundamental our thoughts have to be
• There are graphic forms/spunds to evoke feelings
Ex. “Booo!” for fear
• Gutenberg Galaxy
• Abbreviated writing
Ex. LOL for “laugh out loud” – can even be replaced with an emoji (apparently it was
once a abbreviation for “lots of love” but we have now changed it…
Ex. IQ, CEO, TGIF, VIP and these all have social functions
• Then there are also academic abbreviations
Ex. “ad lib” these also have social relevance and value
• Danesi did a study on the letter “X” to determine how much a single letter can become a
symbol
- Any unknown or unnamed factor, person, or thing
- The signature of any illiterate person (Ex. someone growing up during WW1)
- The sign for mistake
- Cancellation
- Unknown (like in math)
- The Roman numeral 10
- A mechanical defect
- a map location (“X” marks the spot)
- choice on a ballot
- a motion picture rating
- a symbol for Christ
- the symbol for a kiss (and sex in some way)
- symbol for Chronos, the Greek god of time
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Images are often used to make language independent. Ex. the girl and boy symbols on bathroom doors represent the words, so that people don"t mix up even if they don"t speak the language: pictograph = picture symbol for a referent. Ex. the picture of an eye standing for an eye. Ideograph/ideogram = picture or combination of pictures or visual forms standing for something (a series of pictographs united together can be considered ideographs) Ex. the no smoking sign (smoking cigarette with the circle and line through it on top) Logograph/logogram = symbol that stands for a morpheme. & sign standing for and : phonograph/phonogram = symbol designed to approximate how a morpheme of phoneme is pronounced. Booo! for fear: gutenberg galaxy, abbreviated writing. Lol for laugh out loud can even be replaced with an emoji (apparently it was once a abbreviation for lots of love but we have now changed it .
