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The interface between the written and the oral / Jack Goody.
LIBRA P211 .G66 1987
Available from offsite location
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Goody, Jack.
- Series:
- Studies in literacy, the family, culture, and the state.
- Studies in literacy, the family, culture, and the state
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Written communication.
- Writing.
- Oral communication.
- Sociolinguistics.
- Physical Description:
- xxi, 328 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm.
- Place of Publication:
- Cambridge [Cambridgeshire] ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1987.
- Summary:
- Whilst the fundamental significance of the spoken language for human interaction is widely acknowledged, that of writing is less well known, and in this wide-ranging series of essays Jack Goody examines in depth the complex and often confused relationship between oral and literate modes of communication. He considers the interface between the written and the oral in three major contexts; that internal to given societies, that between cultures or societies with and without writing, and that within the linguistic life of an individual. Specific analyses of the sequence of historical change within writing systems, the historic impact of writing upon Eurasian cultures, and the interaction between distinct oral and literate cultures in West Africa, precede an extensive concluding examination of contemporary issues in the investigation, whether sociological or psychological, of literacy. A substantial corpus of anthropological, historical and linguistic evidence is produced in support of Goody's findings, which form a natural complement to his own recently-published study of The Logic of Writing and the Organization of Society.
- Contents:
- Part I Writing and the Alphabet 1
- 1 The historical development of writing 3
- Writing and design 3
- Proto-writing 8
- Early writing systems 18
- Logographic writing 29
- The development of phonetic transcription 37
- The alphabet 40
- The unity and diversity of alphabets 49
- The implications of graphic systems 53
- Part II The Influence of Early Forms of Writing 57
- 2 Literacy and achievement in the Ancient World 59
- 3 Africa, Greece and oral poetry 78
- Memory and verbatim memory 86
- Oral composition and oral transmission 91
- Heroic societies and the epic 96
- 4 Oral composition and oral transmission: the case of the Vedas 110
- Part III Written and Oral Cultures in West Africa 123
- 5 The impact of Islamic writing on oral cultures 125
- Oral recitations 127
- Writing and magico-religious activity 129
- Time and space 132
- 6 Literacy and the non-literate: the impact of European schooling 139
- 7 Alternative paths to knowledge in oral and literate cultures 148
- Traditional knowledge among the LoDagaa 149
- The growth of knowledge 155
- Three modes of acquiring knowledge 156
- Literacy 157
- Two paths to knowledge as social control 161
- 8 Memory and learning in oral and literate cultures: the reproduction of the Bagre 167
- Memory and the Bagre 167
- Verbatim memory in oral cultures 174
- Schools and memory 182
- 9 Writing and formal operations: a case study among the Vai (with Michale Cole and Sylvia Scribner) 191
- The writings of Ansumana Sonie 196
- Part IV Writing and its Impact on Individuals in Society 209
- 10 The interface between the sociological and psychological analysis of literacy 211
- Achievement in the Vai script 211
- Vygotsky and the psychological analysis of Vai literacy 214
- Varieties of script and varieties of tradition 217
- Logic and logical reasoning 219
- Mediated and unmediated implications 221
- Literacy effects in the Vai study 223
- The shift from abilities to skills 226
- Memory and writing 234
- Schools 236
- The experimental method 244
- Culture and cognition 245
- Abilities, capacities and skills 246
- Cultural resources and individual attainment 251
- Psychological texts and practical action 252
- The internal-external problem 253
- 11 Language and writing 258
- Linguists and the written language 261
- Three dimensions of the written and the spoken 262
- The written and spoken registers compared 263
- Grammar and rules 265
- Individual performance in the two registers 266
- Divergences between the written and oral registers 270
- Cross-word puzzles 272
- Other grapho-linguistic techniques of cognitive operation 274
- Lists and categories 275
- The empty-box 275
- Reordering information 276
- Arithmetical operations 277
- The syllogism 278
- Writing and diglossia 279
- Class and register 283
- 12 Recapitulations 290.
- Notes:
- Includes index.
- Bibliography: pages 306-319.
- Local Notes:
- Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Harry E. Humphreys Book Fund.
- ISBN:
- 0521332680
- 0521337941
- OCLC:
- 14242868
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