Communication scholars have dichotomized language into orality and literacy, with orality being the language of the "concrete" and literacy being the language of the "abstract." However, the human experience of language is not that simplistic. In daily linguistic patterns, written words and the "literal" are not…

Literacy is examined from the viewpoint of systemic linguistics. It is proposed that "literacy" means intervening in the social processes by working with written language, and this can not be accomplished by an individual alone. "Using written language" can not be isolated from "using language." While sociologically,…

This article discusses the use of abbreviations in written Spanish, with abundant examples. The hope expressed is that abbreviations will be used only where indispensable. (Text is in Spanish.) (CLK)

Describes a notation system devised for translation research, to compare translated texts with their originals and with one another. Also described is an index for comparison of translations of the same text. These are necessary to measure the preservation of information or the loss of it in the translation process. (CLK)

Concludes that time-consuming man-made counts of syllables can quite accurately be done by computers. (RB)

The practical mechanics necessary for teaching the correct "spelling" of Chinese characters are presented. The focus is on the use of a legible orthography. Attention is given to recognition of strokes, to their formation, their spacing into blocks, the direction of the strokes and weight of the pen. (SC)

Results of two studies indicate that word messages carry more impact than pictures and an analysis of variance reveals that iconicity and sensationalism each related positively to both evaluative-ethical and interest-vitality ratings. (RB)

The process of projecting textual models onto the phenomenal world began with the invention of writing and accelerated through the manuscript culture of classical antiquity and the Middle Ages into the age of print. In Francis Bacon's work, the book (a metaphor for the phenomenal world) adapted to the demands of the printed text and reflects the…

As electronically mediated communication becomes more prevalent, print is regaining the original pictorial qualities which graphemes (written signs) lost when primitive pictographs (or picture writing) and ideographs (simplified graphemes used to communicate ideas as well as to represent objects) evolved into first written, then printed, texts of…

Writing appears to have originated from a modest system of counters or tokens used to keep track of economic goods and transactions. This system of recording appeared in 8000 B. C. in Mesopotamia, or what is now Iraq. The tokens' consistency in shape and size during the next 4,000 years attests to the stability of the agricultural economy and way…

Research supports Samuels' focal attention hypothesis for acquiring reading responses to novel words presented in isolation. (RB)

Describes two systems used in identifying the content structures of a number of passages of approximately 600 words, and discusses the implications of the research for developing future instructional materials. (RB)

The article discusses the process of uniting inherently-linguistic and extra-linguistic factors in communication, examining the reasons for paralinguistic phenomena, their nature and tasks both in oral and written communication, and the ways in which they affect the entire system of the language. (CLK)

As part of the activities at the Research Institute in Education of Learning Disabled Children, work was carried out with a group of about 30 children (grades 4 through 6) disabled in the comprehension of written language. Most of these children, when reading, went beyond using prior knowledge to provide schemata and interpretations; they…