Synopses & Reviews
This innovative book develops a formal computational theory of writing systems and relates it to psycholinguistic results. Drawing on case studies of writing systems around the world, it offers specific proposals about the linguistic objects that are represented by orthographic elements and the formal constraints that hold of the mapping relation between them. Based on the insights gained, it posits a new taxonomy of writing systems. The book will be of interest to students and researchers in theoretical and computational linguistics, the psycholinguistics of reading and writing, and speech technology.
Review
"...this is easily the most original piece of writing in linguistics that I have read in the last ten years." Gerald Penn, Written Language & Literacy
Synopsis
A formal computational theory of writing systems relating to psycholinguistic results.
Table of Contents
List of figures; List of tables; Preface; Part I. Reading Devices: 1. Text-to-speech conversion: a brief introduction; 2. The task of pronouncing aloud: a model; 3. Terminology and conventions; 4. An overview of finite-state automata and transducers; Part II. Regularity: 5. Planar regular languages and planar regular relations; 6. The locality hypothesis; 7. Planar arrangements: examples; 8. Cross-writing-system variation in the SLU; 9. Macroscopic catenation: text direction; 10. Sample Chinese characters and their analyses; Part III. ORL Depth and Consistency: 11. Russian and Belarusian orthography: a case study; 12. English; 13. The orthographic representation of Serbo-Croatian consonant devoicing; 14. Cyclicity in orthography; 15. Surface orthographic constraints; 16. English deep and shallow ORLs; Part IV. Linguistic Elements: 17. Taxonomies of writing systems: a brief overview; 18. Chinese writing; 19. Japanese writing; 20. Some further examples; Part V. Psycholinguistic Evidence; 21. Multiple routes and the orthographic depth hypothesis; 22. 'Shallow' processing in 'deep' orthographies; 23. Connectionist models: the Seidenberg-McClelland model; 24. Summary; Part VI. Further Issues: 25. Adaptation of writing systems: the case of Manx Gaelic; 26. Orthographic reforms: the case of Dutch; 27. Other forms of notation: numerical notation and its relation to number names; 28. Abbreviatory devices; 29. Non-Bloomfieldian views on writing; 30. Postscript; Bibliography; Index.