CS100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Mnemonic, Impermanence, Logogram
Document Summary
Consequences of shifts (really old new media ): stone to papyrus; oral to literate culture. Aids in the development of administration, bureaucracy, economy. Writing = dissemination of power and authority. A sign or a character representing a word. But, the logogram does not resemble that which it stands for, Relatively arbitrary relations between the logo and its meaning. Phono graphic: a symbol representing a vocal sound (such as the alphabet, ties spoken language to written language, phonecian alphabet circa 1500 bce. Phonetic principles: in fully phonetic writing systems, speech and writing are reconciled. Writing follows and is modeled on spoken language. Consequences: literacy becomes way more accessible because it is so much easier, (important qualification: despite the above, until ~1450 most people were illiterate. Until the invention of the printing press, most communication remains oral: accelerates progress (scholarship, science, etc) It allows for the collection of knowledge (because we can write it down and keep it)
