Writing System

A Writing System is a Symbol System that uses Graphemes to communicate a Natural Language Expression.

• AKA: Writing, Natural Language Writing System, Written Language.
• Context:
  • It can represent Written Linguistic Expressions.
  • It can be a Morphosyllabic Writing System.
  • It can be:
    • a Segmented Writing System.
    • a Non-Segmented Writing System.
  • It can be:
    • a Logographic Writing System.
    • a Syllabic Writing System.
    • a Alphabetic Writing System.
    • a Featural Writing System.
• Example(s):
  • English Writing System.
  • Chinese Writing System.
  • German Writing System.
  • Japanese Writing System.
  • Arabic Writing System.
  •  ?? Morse Code ??.
• See: Speech System, Orthographic.

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References

2009

• (Wikipedia, 2009) ⇒ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Writing
  • Writing is the representation of language in a textual medium through the use of a set of signs or symbols (known as a writing system). It is distinguished from illustration, such as cave drawing and painting, and the recording of language via a non-textual medium such as magnetic tape audio.
  • In Eurasia writing began as a consequence of the burgeoning needs of accounting. Around the 4th millennium BC, the complexity of trade and administration outgrew the power of memory, and writing became a more dependable method of recording and presenting transactions in a permanent form (Robinson, 2003, p. 36). In Mesoamerica writing may have evolved through calendrics and a political necessity for recording historical events.
• (Wikipedia, 2009) ⇒ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Writing#Writing_systems
  • The major writing systems – methods of inscription – broadly fall into four categories: logographic, syllabic, alphabetic, and featural. Another category, ideographic (symbols for ideas), has never been developed sufficiently to represent language. A sixth category, pictographic, is insufficient to represent language on its own, but often forms the core of logographies.

1996

• (Sproat et al, 1996) ⇒ Richard Sproat, William A. Gale, Chilin Shih, and Nancy Chang. (1996). "A Stochastic Finite-state Word-Segmentation Algorithm for Chinese." In: Computational Linguistics, 22(3).
  • Whether a language even has orthographic words is largely dependent on the writing system used to represent the language (rather than the language itself); the notion "orthographic word" is not universal.

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