Writing and Literacy in Chinese, Korean and Japanese
Revised edition
The book describes how the three East Asian writing systems-Chinese, Korean, and Japanese- originated, developed, and are used today. Uniquely, this book: (1) examines the three East Asian scripts (and English) together in relation to each other, and (2) discusses how these scripts are, and historically have been, used in literacy and how they are learned, written, read, and processed by the eyes, the brain, and the mind.
In this second edition, the authors have included recent research findings on the uses of the scripts, added several new sections, and rewritten several other sections. They have also added a new Part IV to deal with issues that similarly involve all the four languages/scripts of their interest.
The book is intended both for the general public and for interested scholars. Technical terms (listed in a glossary) are used only when absolutely necessary.
In this second edition, the authors have included recent research findings on the uses of the scripts, added several new sections, and rewritten several other sections. They have also added a new Part IV to deal with issues that similarly involve all the four languages/scripts of their interest.
The book is intended both for the general public and for interested scholars. Technical terms (listed in a glossary) are used only when absolutely necessary.
This title replaces:
Writing and Literacy in Chinese, Korean and Japanese, Insup Taylor and M. Martin Taylor (1995)
Writing and Literacy in Chinese, Korean and Japanese, Insup Taylor and M. Martin Taylor (1995)
[Studies in Written Language and Literacy, 14] 2014. xix, 487 pp.
Publishing status: Available
Published online on 5 December 2014
Published online on 5 December 2014
© John Benjamins
Table of Contents
- About the authors | pp. xv–15
- Preface | pp. xvii–xviii
- Acknowledgements | pp. xix–19
- Part I. Chinese
- Spoken Chinese | pp. 21–36
- Chinese characters: Hanzi | pp. 37–55
- Meaning representation in characters | pp. 56–74
- Sound representation by characters | pp. 75–84
- History of education and literacy in China | pp. 85–111
- Reforming spoken and written Chinese | pp. 112–129
- School, and learning to read in Chinese | pp. 130–152
- Summary and conclusions | pp. 153–154
- Part II. Korean
- Korean language | pp. 157–171
- Hancha: Chinese characters | pp. 172–179
- Han’g?l: Alphabetic syllabary | pp. 180–198
- Learning and using Han’g?l | pp. 199–222
- Why should Hancha be kept? | pp. 223–235
- History of education and literacy in Korea | pp. 236–252
- Summary and conclusions | pp. 253–254
- Part III. Japanese
- Japanese language | pp. 257–270
- Kanji: Chinese characters | pp. 271–283
- Kana: Japanese syllabary | pp. 284–293
- R?maji: Roman letters | pp. 294–302
- Why keep Kanji? | pp. 303–321
- History of mass literacy in Japan | pp. 322–332
- Learning and using Kanji and Kana | pp. 333–351
- The Japanese educational system | pp. 352–360
- Summary and conclusions | pp. 361–362
- Part IV. Common issues
- Eye movements and text writing in East Asia | pp. 365–379
- Reading and the brain | pp. 380–394
- East Asian students in international tests | pp. 395–404
- Logographic characters vs phonetic scripts | pp. 405–420
- Afterthoughts | pp. 421–422
- Glossary | pp. 423–437
- Name index | pp. 463–469
- Subject index | pp. 471–487
“[The book] provides an excellent account of writing and literacy in three national languages of East Asia .... It is strongly recommended not only to those working on writing and literacy, but to broad typologists and cognitive linguists.”
Toshio Ohori,University of Tokyo, in Studies in Language, vol. 25, No 1, 2001, pp 173-177. On the first edition.
“Overall, this is a valuable book [...]. For the reader who is not a specialist in East Asian languages, it provides a great deal of information about writing and literacy that would otherwise be hard to find in one place. Due to its broad scope, even specialists are likely to find new information on some topics.”
William J. Poser,University of Pennsylvania, in Anthropological Linguistics, vol 44, No 1, 2002. pp 103-106. On the first edition.
“The first edition of the book covered a wide-range of topics in writing and literacy in the three East Asian languages, in relation to each other and to English. The second edition is thoroughly updated, especially in reading research. I heartily recommend it to both academic communities and the general public.”
Cho Jeung Ryeul,Kyungnam University, South Korea
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Subjects
Main BIC Subject
CF: Linguistics
Main BISAC Subject
LAN009000: LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / General