The BasisSpellingBank

2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-79
Author(s):  
Johan Zuidema ◽  
Anneke Neijt
Keyword(s):  
Formal System ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Spelling Performance ◽  
Relevant Word ◽  
Alphabetic Writing ◽  
The Way

Abstract The BasisSpellingBank is the first lexicon where the spellings and pronunciations of words are documented explicitly and separately for all relevant word parts. Unlike earlier descriptions of Dutch orthography in terms of rules and underlying forms, the BasisSpellingBank departs from the concept of storage and the way spelling is taught in schools. At its core are triplets of phoneme(s), grapheme(s), and the spelling category(s) which describe the correspondences between them. The triplet notation provides a detailed, exhaustive description of Dutch orthography. It is a formal system that could be used to describe other alphabetic writing systems as well. By integrating information about orthographic rules and lexical storage, the triplet notation more adequately describes the knowledge possessed by fluent users. The triplets unlock exact measures of both forward and backward consistency, which opens up detailed analyses of spelling performance. The database provides new insights into spelling education and spelling complexity.

The Alphabet and its Legacy

2019 ◽  
pp. 240-255
Author(s):  
Madadh Richey
Keyword(s):  
Mediterranean Basin ◽  
Technological Development ◽  
Greek Language ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Present Contribution ◽  
Generative Power ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Alphabetic Writing ◽  
The Mediterranean Basin

The alphabet employed by the Phoenicians was the inheritor of a long tradition of alphabetic writing and was itself adapted for use throughout the Mediterranean basin by numerous populations speaking many languages. The present contribution traces the origins of the alphabet in Sinai and the Levant before discussing different alphabetic standardizations in Ugarit and Phoenician Tyre. The complex adaptation of the latter for representation of the Greek language is described in detail, then some brief attention is given to likely—Etruscan and other Italic alphabets—and possible (Iberian and Berber) descendants of the Phoenician alphabet. Finally, it is stressed that current research does not view the Phoenician and other alphabets as inherently simpler, more easily learned, or more democratic than other writing systems. The Phoenician alphabet remains, nevertheless, an impressive technological development worthy, especially by virtue of its generative power, of detailed study ranging from paleographic and orthographic specifications to social and political contextualization.

scholarly journals Reading acquisition reorganizes the phonological awareness network only in alphabetic writing systems

2012 ◽  
Vol 34 (12) ◽  
pp. 3354-3368 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine Brennan ◽  
Fan Cao ◽  
Nicole Pedroarena-Leal ◽  
Chris McNorgan ◽  
James R. Booth
Keyword(s):  
Phonological Awareness ◽  
Reading Acquisition ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Alphabetic Writing

scholarly journals Neurocognitive Basis of Dyslexia in Different Writing Systems

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li Liu ◽  
James R. Booth
Keyword(s):  
Developmental Dyslexia ◽  
Writing System ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Chinese Writing System ◽  
Chinese Writing ◽  
Alphabetic Writing

An important issue in dyslexia research is whether developmental dyslexia in different writing systems has a common neurocognitive basis across writing systems or whether there are specific neurocognitive alterations. In this chapter, we review studies that investigate the neurocognitive basis of dyslexia in Chinese, a logographic writing system, and compare the findings of these studies with dyslexia in alphabetic writing systems. We begin with a brief review of the characteristics of the Chinese writing system because to fully understand the commonality and specificity in the neural basis of Chinese dyslexia one must understand how logographic writing systems are structured differently than alphabetic systems.

Reading with the Fingers: Tactile Signs and the Possibilities for a Language of Touch

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Paterson
Keyword(s):  
Writing Systems ◽  
Helen Keller ◽  
Blind Children ◽  
The Us ◽  
Literate Culture ◽  
And Mathematics ◽  
Reading System ◽  
The Way ◽  
Accidental Discovery

The accidental discovery in 1786 by Valentin Haüy that embossed script could be read by the fingers paved the way for the concrete development of a fully-fledged haptic reading system. The story of tactile writing systems is spurred in part by shame, a means to include the blind in literate culture. Haüy’s ‘An Essay on the Education of Blind Children’ of 1786 summarized his purpose: “to teach the blind reading, by the assistance of books, where the letters are rendered palpable by their elevation above the surface of the paper” (1894:9). Here the evolution of competing writing systems and their role in education and access to literature and mathematics is detailed, as Braille’s system spread to other countries including Britain and the US, and was famously endorsed by Helen Keller whose own remarkable story of reading and communicating through the skin is so compelling.

Spelling Development and Disability

2001 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 172-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Derrick C. Bourassa ◽  
Rebecca Treiman
Keyword(s):  
General Framework ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Spelling Development ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Spelling Performance ◽  
Fine Detail ◽  
Linguistic Analyses ◽  
Alphabetic Writing

This article reviews the literature on normal and impaired spelling development in English. Once children begin to learn that the function of alphabetic writing is to represent the sounds of language, they go through the process of learning sound-spelling correspondences in increasingly fine detail. Continued experience with print allows children to learn about orthographic and morphological conventions of the language. Within this general framework, the authors describe research that underscores the importance of fine-grained linguistic analyses of spelling performance. It is concluded that such an approach holds a great deal of promise for theory and practice.

scholarly journals Effects of word predictability on eye movements during Arabic reading

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maryam A. AlJassmi ◽  
Kayleigh L. Warrington ◽  
Victoria A. McGowan ◽  
Sarah J. White ◽  
Kevin B. Paterson
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Eye Movement ◽  
Morphological Characteristics ◽  
Movement Control ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Eye Fixations ◽  
Varying Length ◽  
Word Predictability ◽  
Word Skipping ◽  
Alphabetic Writing

AbstractContextual predictability influences both the probability and duration of eye fixations on words when reading Latinate alphabetic scripts like English and German. However, it is unknown whether word predictability influences eye movements in reading similarly for Semitic languages like Arabic, which are alphabetic languages with very different visual and linguistic characteristics. Such knowledge is nevertheless important for establishing the generality of mechanisms of eye-movement control across different alphabetic writing systems. Accordingly, we investigated word predictability effects in Arabic in two eye-movement experiments. Both produced shorter fixation times for words with high compared to low predictability, consistent with previous findings. Predictability did not influence skipping probabilities for (four- to eight-letter) words of varying length and morphological complexity (Experiment 1). However, it did for short (three- to four-letter) words with simpler structures (Experiment 2). We suggest that word-skipping is reduced, and affected less by contextual predictability, in Arabic compared to Latinate alphabetic reading, because of specific orthographic and morphological characteristics of the Arabic script.

Il ruolo dei mondi vitali nella salute

2009 ◽  
pp. 114-134
Author(s):  
Francesca Guarino
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Social System ◽  
New Technology ◽  
Life Quality ◽  
Formal System ◽  
Phenomenological Approach ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Life World ◽  
Aged People ◽  
The Way

- Achille Ardigň had the prominent role of introducing the concept of Lebenswelt in Italy. By the way, his point of view is nearly peculiar from the methodological individualism adopted by the phenomenological approach as it emerges in sociology and so on, in health sociology. In this contribute the aim is to give some keys to explicate this difference, that is first of all an epistemological difference, starting from the reason that life-world has never assumed by itself, but is always taken in an ideal-typical and historical interaction with social system, including health system. The concept of empathy is consequentially given. By that, the importance of social support in a positive connection with health and life quality can be observed for itself, or as strictly linked with the formal system possibilities, according with Ardigň suggestions. Actually new technology can be the way of doing that. e-Care project, as it is developed for the aged people and with the net support, is a practical example of an innovative interaction between informal social and formal care institutions. The result is an application of a sensate pact between life-world and system, for improving health.Key words: social support; life-world, social system, empathy, health, social capital.Parole chiave: supporto sociale, mondo della vita, sistema sociale, salute empatia, capitale sociale.

The Early Greek Alphabets

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Single Event ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Comprehensive Overview ◽  
Archaic Greece ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
The Many ◽  
New Evidence ◽  
Alphabetic Writing

Regional variation, a persistent feature of Greek alphabetic writing throughout the Archaic period, has been studied since at least the late nineteenth century. The subject was transformed by the publication in 1961 of Lilian H. (Anne) Jeffery's Local Scripts of Archaic Greece (reissued with a valuable supplement by A. Johnston in 1990), based on first-hand study of more than a thousand inscriptions. Much important new evidence has emerged since 1987 (Johnston's cut-off date), and debate has continued energetically about all the central issues raised by the book: the date at which the Phoenician script was taken over and filled out with vowels; the priority of Phrygia or Greece in that takeover; whether the takeover happened once, and the resulting alphabet then spread outwards, or whether takeover occurred independently in several paces; if the takeover was a single event, the region where it occurred; if so again, the explanation for the many divergences in local script. The hypothesis that the different scripts emerged not through misunderstandings but through conscious variation has been strongly supported, and contested, in the post-Jeffery era; also largely post-Jeffery is the flourishing debate about the development and functions of literacy in Archaic Greece. Dialectology, the understanding of vocalization, and the study of ancient writing systems more broadly have also moved forwards rapidly. In this volume a team of scholars combining the various relevant expertises (epigraphic, philological, historical, archaeological) provide the first comprehensive overview of the state of the question 70 years after Jeffery's masterpiece.

Premodern Letters and Textual Consciousness

2010 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 279-319
Author(s):  
Mark E. Amsler
Keyword(s):  
Written Language ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Manuscript Culture ◽  
History Of ◽  
Roman Alphabet ◽  
And Linguistics ◽  
Alphabetic Writing ◽  
Visual Sign ◽  
Material Substances

Summary Modern linguistics textbooks devote little, if any, space to writing systems. Shifting our attention from naming precursors or proto-theories to reading earlier language study and linguistics as theorizing and description, the present paper explores ancient and early medieval concepts of the letter in terms of the semiotics of written language and the emergence of textual consciousness in manuscript culture. Early concepts and uses of the letter in alphabetic writing were ambiguous, multilayered, and occasionally contested, but they were not confused. Ancient and early medieval concepts of the letter were based on a semiotics of language and writing which connected spoken and visual signs as multimodal textual activity. Theories of the letter included: (a) the written character (gramma, littera) is a visual sign signifying a particular sound or group of sounds; (b) letters can function as arbitrary second-order signifying systems, such as numbers or diacritics; (c) different alphabets are rooted in the history of peoples although the Roman alphabet is a plastic medium for inscribing the emerging European vernaculars; (d) letters are material substances; (e) the written character is a mute sign; (f) the written character is imperfect or incomplete when detached from sound and the practice of reading aloud.

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