LING 509 - The Psycholinguistics of Writing Systems

This course presents information on how vision, language comprehension and motor behaviors have constrained and shaped the evolution of writing systems. The course includes three segments: (1) a review of writing in pre-history, the early evolution of symbol systems, the Greco-Roman alphabet, script writing; (2) a review of the visual and auditory processes that influence writing systems, particularly the alphabet, the shape of letters and spelling conventions; (3) printing since Gutenberg, the evolution of fonts, punctuation, formatting conventions, and modern techniques for presenting text. A thread throughout the course is the impact of different stages of writing technology on society and individuals. Graduate-level requirements include additional readings and an extra 25 page research paper.