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Languages are systems of symbols; writing is a system for symbolizing these
symbols. A writing system may be defined as any conventional system of marks or
signs that represents the utterances of a language. Writing renders language visible;
while speech is ephemeral, writing is concrete and, by comparison, permanent.
Both speaking and writing depend upon the underlying structures of language.
Consequently, writing cannot ordinarily be read by someone not familiar with the
linguistic structure underlying the oral form of the language. Yet writing is not
merely the transcription of speech; writing frequently involves the use of special
forms of language, such as those involved in literary and scientific works, which
would not be produced orally. In any linguistic community the written language is
a distinct and special dialect; usually there is more than one written dialect.
Scholars account for these facts by suggesting that writing is related directly to
language but not necessarily directly to speech. Consequently, spoken and written
language may evolve somewhat distinctive forms and functions. Once writing was
seen as providing a new medium for linguistic expression, its distinctness from
speech was more clearly grasped. Scholars such as Milman Parry, Marshall
McLuhan, Eric Havelock, Jack Goody, and Walter Ong were among the first to
analyze the conceptual and social implications of using written as opposed to oral
forms of communication.
Writing is merely one, albeit the most important, means of communicating
by visible signs. Gestures–such as a raised hand for greeting or a wink for intimate
agreement–are visible signs but they are not writing in that they do not transcribe a
linguistic form. Pictures, similarly, may represent events but do not represent
language and hence are not a form of writing.
But the boundary between pictures and writing becomes less clear when
pictures are used conventionally to convey particular meanings. In order to
distinguish pictures from pictorial signs it is necessary to notice that language has
two primary levels of structure: the meaning structures on one hand and the sound
patterns on the other. Indeed, linguists define grammar as a system for mapping–
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