14.623, Qs: Writing Systems, Literature and Variation

[LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List:  Vol-14-623. Tue Mar 4 2003. ISSN: 1068-4875.

Subject: 14.623, Qs: Writing Systems, Literature and Variation

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1)
Date:  Mon, 3 Mar 2003 11:33:22 -0800 (PST)
From:  bender at csli.Stanford.EDU
Subject:  Writing systems and reading speeds

2)
Date:  Mon, 3 Mar 2003 11:35:46 -0800 (PST)
From:  bender at csli.Stanford.EDU
Subject:  Sociolinguistics and comparative literature

-------------------------------- Message 1 -------------------------------

Date:  Mon, 3 Mar 2003 11:33:22 -0800 (PST)
From:  bender at csli.Stanford.EDU
Subject:  Writing systems and reading speeds

Dear colleagues,

I remember hearing or reading about a study which found
that proficient readers of Chinese read faster than
proficient readers of English, and both read faster
than proficient readers of Spanish.  The explanation was
that in the Chinese writing system, words have distinctive
visual properties, allowing readers to read them quickly.
English, because of its spelling irregularities, also
has many words with distinctive shapes.  Apparently,
proficient readers of alphabetic systems also often
recognize whole words, rather than reading off the sounds.
The more distinctive the word-shapes, the faster this
goes.  The good sound-graph correspondence in Spanish
leads to less distinctive word-shapes and therefore slower
reading.

Can anyone point me to a reference for this study?

Many thanks,

Emily M. Bender
Stanford University


-------------------------------- Message 2 -------------------------------

Date:  Mon, 3 Mar 2003 11:35:46 -0800 (PST)
From:  bender at csli.Stanford.EDU
Subject:  Sociolinguistics and comparative literature

Posting a question for a student:

Does anyone know of work applying sociolinguistic notions
of variation and style to comparative literature?  How
about any other cross-over studies involving the two fields?

Many thanks,

Emily M. Bender
Stanford University

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