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Concept
Written language
Summary
A written language is the representation of a language by means of writing. This involves the use of visual symbols, known as graphemes, to represent linguistic units such as phonemes, syllables, morphemes, or words. However, it is important to note that written language is not merely spoken or signed language written down, though it can approximate that. Instead, it is a separate system with its own norms, structures, and stylistic conventions, and it often evolves differently than its corresponding spoken or signed language.
Written languages serve as crucial tools for communication, enabling the recording, preservation, and transmission of information, ideas, and culture across time and space. The specific form a written language takes – its alphabet or script, its spelling conventions, and its punctuation system, among other features – is determined by its orthography.
The development and use of written language have had profound impacts on human societies throughout history, influencing social organization, cultural identity, technology, and the dissemination of knowledge. In contemporary times, the advent of digital technology has led to significant changes in the ways we use written language, from the creation of new written genres and conventions to the evolution of writing systems themselves.
Written language, spoken language, and signed language are three distinct modalities of communication, each with its own unique characteristics and conventions.
Spoken and signed language is often more dynamic and flexible, reflecting the immediate context of the conversation, the speaker's emotions, and other non-verbal cues. It tends to use more informal language, contractions, and colloquialisms, and it is typically structured in shorter sentences. Spoken and signed language often includes false starts and hesitations. Because spoken and signed language tend to be interactive, they include elements that facilitate turn taking, including prosodic features, such as trailing off, and fillers that indicate the speaker/signer is not yet finished their turn.
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Ontological neighbourhood
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Transcription (linguistics)
Transcription in the linguistic sense is the systematic representation of spoken language in written form. The source can either be utterances (speech or sign language) or preexisting text in another writing system. Transcription should not be confused with translation, which means representing the meaning of text from a source-language in a target language, (e.g. Los Angeles (from source-language Spanish) means The Angels in the target language English); or with transliteration, which means representing the spelling of a text from one script to another.
Writing system
A writing system is a method of visually representing verbal communication, based on a script and a set of rules regulating its use. While both writing and speech are useful in conveying messages, writing differs in also being a reliable form of information storage and transfer. Writing systems require shared understanding between writers and readers of the meaning behind the sets of characters that make up a script.
Word
A word is a basic element of language that carries an objective or practical meaning, can be used on its own, and is uninterruptible. Despite the fact that language speakers often have an intuitive grasp of what a word is, there is no consensus among linguists on its definition and numerous attempts to find specific criteria of the concept remain controversial. Different standards have been proposed, depending on the theoretical background and descriptive context; these do not converge on a single definition.