The World on Paper: The Conceptual and Cognitive Implications of Writing and ReadingWhat role has writing played in the development of our modern understanding of language, nature, and ourselves? In the historical and developmental account, David Olson offers a new perspective on this process. Reversing the traditional assumption about the relation between speech and writing, he argues that writing provides an important model of the way we think about speech; that our consciousness of language is structured by our writing system. In addition, he argues that writing provides our dominant models for thinking about nature and the mind, and shows how our understanding of the world and our understanding of ourselves are by-products of our ways of creating and interpreting written texts. This challenging study draw in recent advances in history, anthropology, linguistics, and psychology. |
Contents
Demythologizing literacy I | 1 |
Theories of literacy and mind from | 20 |
Literacy and the conceptual revolutions of | 45 |
a revisionist history | 65 |
how texts are | 91 |
the recovery | 115 |
from the spirit of the | 143 |
the conceptual | 160 |
from | 179 |
Representing the world in maps diagrams | 195 |
the origins of | 234 |
The making of the literate mind | 257 |
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The World on Paper: The Conceptual and Cognitive Implications of Writing and ... David R. Olson No preview available - 1994 |
Common terms and phrases
achievement Alpers alphabet argued assumptions attempt attitude beliefs Book of Nature Cambridge University Press chapter claim cognitive concepts consciousness context critical cultures Descartes distinction distinguish Early Modern Eisenstein evidence evolution expression fact Gaur genre Goody grammatical mood graphic Greek Havelock hermeneutics history of writing Huichol ideas illocutionary force indicate inference intention interpretation J. L. Austin knowledge language learning to read Levy-Bruhl lexical linguistic literacy literal meaning logical logographic McLuhan medieval mental metaphor Middle Ages mind mnemonic notion object Olson oral oral cultures Original work published Paracelsus phonemes problem properties psychology quipu reader reading and writing recognize relation represent representation Robert Boyle scientific script scripture seen seventeenth century signs simple social speaker speech act statements structure suggested syntactic taken textual theory theory of mind things thinking thought tradition understanding utterance Vai script verbs words world on paper writing systems written texts