Logographic Writing System
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
A Logographic Writing System is a writing system that represents language through characters corresponding primarily to words, morphemes, or semantic units rather than phonemes or syllables.
- Context:
- It can typically encode Words or Morphemes using a large set of characters (often several thousand).
- It can typically represent Complex Meanings through individual characters or character combinations.
- It can typically require Extensive Memorization of numerous distinct characters for reading proficiency.
- It can typically maintain Semantic Transparency where characters visually suggest their meaning.
- It can typically allow Cross-Dialect Communication since characters represent meaning rather than pronunciation.
- It can typically preserve Etymology through character composition and visual structure.
- ...
- It can often incorporate Phonetic Elements within characters to provide pronunciation clues.
- It can often utilize Character Components (radicals) that suggest semantic fields or meaning categories.
- It can often employ Character Formation Principles such as pictographic representation, ideographic composition, and semantic-phonetic compounds.
- It can often develop Character Simplification to reduce stroke count and improve writing efficiency.
- It can often establish Character Standards to maintain consistency across regions and time periods.
- ...
- It can range from being a Pure Logographic System to being a Mixed Logographic System, depending on its phonetic element incorporation.
- It can range from being a Pictographic-Based System to being an Abstract-Based System, depending on its visual resemblance to represented objects.
- It can range from being a Simple Character System to being a Complex Character System, depending on its stroke complexity and structural composition.
- It can range from being a Traditional Character System to being a Simplified Character System, depending on its reform history and character modification.
- ...
- It can have Character Dictionarys organized by radical, stroke count, or pronunciation.
- It can have Calligraphic Traditions that emphasize artistic expression through character writing.
- It can have Character Variations based on historical periods, regional usage, or script styles.
- It can have Reading Strategys that leverage semantic components for meaning inference.
- It can have Input Methods for digital text that accommodate the large number of characters.
- ...
- Examples:
- Modern Logographic Writing Systems, such as:
- Chinese Writing System for Chinese language representation.
- Japanese Kanji System for Japanese semantic representation.
- Korean Hanja System for Korean semantic representation (though largely replaced by Hangul).
- Ancient Logographic Writing Systems, such as:
- Partially Logographic Writing Systems, such as:
- Japanese Writing System combining logographic kanji with syllabic kana.
- Sumerian Cuneiform in its later stages with phonetic complements.
- Modern Symbol Systems with Logographic Features, such as:
- ...
- Modern Logographic Writing Systems, such as:
- Counter-Examples:
- Alphabetic Writing Systems, which represent phonemes rather than words or morphemes.
- Syllabic Writing Systems, which represent syllables rather than words or morphemes.
- Featural Writing Systems, which represent phonological features rather than semantic units.
- Pictographic Systems, which depict objects without systematic language encoding.
- Ideographic Systems, which represent ideas directly without fully encoding language.
- See: Character, Morpheme, Radical, Semantic Unit, Writing System, Logogram, Ideogram, Pictogram, Chinese Character, Kanji.
References
2009
- (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.