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Article published In: Understanding Writing Systems
Edited by Merijn Beeksma and Martin Neef
[Written Language & Literacy 21:1] 2018
► pp. 52–88

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What is natural in writing?

Prolegomena to a Natural Grapholinguistics

 | University of Graz
Published online: 2 November 2018
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/wll.00010.mel
Abstract
Naturalness Theory (NT) is founded on the notion of naturalness and claims that when a linguistic phenomenon can be processed by humans with little effort, both sensomotorically and cognitively, it is deemed more natural compared to other, more complex phenomena. Drawing on evidence such as language change, language acquisition, and language disorders, various parameters of naturalness (e.g., biuniqueness, constructional iconicity) have been postulated, which focus on the phonological and morphological subsystems of language. This paper offers an outline of how naturalness can be adapted to grapholinguistic phenomena. Comparative graphematics (cf. Weingarten, Rüdiger (2011). Comparative graphematics. Written Language and Literacy 14.1: 12–38. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar), extended to comparative grapholinguistics, is assessed as a method that can be used to reveal naturalness parameters which apply to both material (graphetic) and linguistic (graphematic) aspects of writing. The reduction of extrinsic symmetry across various scripts will be discussed as an example. By integrating these preliminary theoretical ideas into the framework of NT, it is demonstrated that so-called Natural Grapholinguistics could offer promising new insights as well as a tertium comparationis method for future comparative analyses of scripts and writing systems.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Naturalness
    • 2.1A linguistic definition of naturalness
    • 2.2 Natural Phonology (NP), Natural Morphology (NM), and other Naturalist approaches
    • 2.3Subtheories of Natural Morphology
  • 3.Proposal of a Natural Grapholinguistics
    • 3.1Notes on grapholinguistics and its terminology
    • 3.2The paradox of interpreting writing as natural
    • 3.3Proposed natural features of scripts and writing systems
    • 3.4Subtheories of Natural Grapholinguistics
    • 3.5External evidence
    • 3.6Natural processes, naturalness parameters
  • 4.Example: (A)symmetry
  • 5.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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