Articles by various authors. See Readings list. Available from the Dept. Office.

This course presents a critical study of the origin, classification, composition, and development of the Chinese writing system. Other related topics would also be covered.

The course surveys topics of relevance to the Chinese writing system. It covers the origin, classification, and development of the Chinese script, and its adaptability to various dialects and minority languages in China. The course also studies the history of language reform in China, involving simplification, phoneticization and alphabetization. For comparative purposes, the Japanese and Korean writing systems (kana and hangul respectively) will also be investigated, together with a brief look at problems of computerization of these three languages. Concluding the course will be some psycholinguistic studies on the reading of Chinese characters (versus other systems of writing) and hemispheric specialization, on the speed and comprehension in reading Chinese characters versus romanization, and other topics.

The course will be conducted through lectures combined with student presentations of assigned readings. Course work includes students' selection of a research topic for a term paper, and class presentation of their research findings.

1. Read and reflect on all assigned readings prior to class lectures and discussion.
2. Attend and participate in class discussions.
3. Select two articles for class presentation.
4. Turn in a one-page abstract (Week 5) and a term paper (Examination Week).

Class participation	10%
Class presentations	20%
Research project (all phases)	70%
	------
	100%

WEEK 1
T	3/29	Introduction	Readings: . Sampson (1985), Ch. 1
R	3/31	Introduction	Readings: . Sampson (1985), Ch. 2

WEEK 2
T	4/5	Chinese Writing System: An Overview	Readings: . Norman (1988), Ch. 3.1-3.5, pp.58-70 . Sampson (1985), Ch. 8
R	4/7	Early Chinese Writing	Readings: . Boltz (1986), Tong (1976)

WEEK 3
T	4/12	Chinese Writing and Phonological Theory	Readings: . Halliday (1981)
R	4/14	Phonetic/Semantic Predictability of Characters	Readings: . DeFrancis (1984a)

WEEK 4
T	4/19	Writing Reform and Language Planning	Readings: . DeFrancis (1984b), Ch. 15 . Norman (1988), Ch. 3.8, pp.79-82; Ch. 10.4, pp. 257-265
R	4/21	Development of the National Phonetic Symbols	Readings: . N.C. Chang (1981)

WEEK 5
T	4/26	Simplification and Reduction of Chinese Characters	Readings: . C.C. Cheng (1975) . Ng (1976) . S.C. Chang (1976)
R	4/28	Adaptability of Chinese Characters	Readings: . R. Cheng (1978) . Norman (1988), Ch. 3.7, pp.74-79

WEEK 6
T	5/3	Reading of Characters vs. Romanization	Readings: . Light (1976) . Everson (1988)
R	5/5	Reading and Speech Recoding in Chinese and English	Readings: . Treiman et al. (1981)

WEEK 7
T	5/10	Spatial Manipulation of Chinese Characters	Readings: . Everson (1987)
R	5/12	Short Term Memory and Chinese Character Processing	Readings: . Hayes (1987) . Yu et al. (1985) . Zhang and Simon (1985)

WEEK 8
T	5/17	History and Development of the Japanese Writing System	Readings: . Sampson, Ch. 9 . Guest Speaker: Prof. Leon Serafim
R	5/19	Reading and Hemispheric Specialization	Readings: . Tzeng et al. (1978, 1979)

WEEK 9
T	5/24	Creation of the Korean Writing System	Readings: . Sampson, Ch. 7 . Guest speaker: Prof. Leon Serafim
R	5/26	Writing Systems of Minority Languages in China	Readings: . (None -- Lecture based on Ramsey (1987) and other sources)

WEEK 10
T	5/31	CLASS PRESENTATIONS
R	6/2	Computerization of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean	Readings: . Becker (1985) . Huang (1985)

1. Becker, Joseph D. 1985. "Typing Chinese, Japanese, and Korean." Computer 18.1:27-34.

2. Boltz, William G. 1986. "Early Chinese writing." World Archaeology 17.3:420-436.

3. Chang, Nien-chuang T. 1981. "The devising and adoption of the Chinese phonetic symbols (zhuyin fuhao)." In: Towards a History of Phonetics. R.E. Asher and Eugenie J.A. Henderson (eds.). Edinburgh: Edinburgh U. Press. Pp. 141-160.

4. Chang, Su-chen. 1976. "Reduction in number of Chinese characters." J. of the Chinese Language Teachers Association XI.3:187-191.

5. Cheng, Chin-chuan. 1975. "Directions of Chinese character simplification." J. of Chinese Linguistics 3.2/3:213-220.

6. Cheng, Robert. 1978. "Taiwanese morphemes in search of Chinese characters." J. of Chinese Linguistics 6:306-314.

7. DeFrancis, John. 1984a. "Phonetic versus semantic predictability in Chinese characters." J. of the Chinese Language Teachers Association XIX.1:1-21.

8. DeFrancis, John. 1984b. The Chinese Language: Fact and Fantasy. Honolulu: U. of Hawaii Press.

9. Everson, Michael E. 1987. "Spacial manipulation of Chinese characters." Paper presented at the 1987 Annual Meeting of the Chinese Language Teachers Association. 19-22 November 1987. Atlanta, GA.

10. Everson, Michael E. 1988. "Speed and comprehension in reading Chinese: romanization vs. characters revisited." J. of the Chinese Language Teachers Association XXIII.2:1-15.

11. Halliday, M.A.K. 1981. "The origin and early development of Chinese phonological theory." In: Towards a History of Phonetics. R.E. Asher and Eugenie J.A. Henderson (eds.). Edinburgh: Edinburgh U. Press. Pp. 123-140.

12. Hatta, Takeshi. 1977. "Recognition of Japanese kanji in the left and right visual fields." Neuropsychologia 11:685-688. (Supplementary reading)

13. Hayes, Edmund Brice. 1987. "An investigation of the amount of phonological encoding vs. visual processing strategies employed by advanced American readers of Chinese Mandarin and native Chinese readers." Paper presented at the 1987 Annual Meeting of the Chinese Language Teachers Association. 19-22 November 1987. Atlanta, GA.

14. Huang, Jack Kai-tung. 1985. "The input and output of Chinese and Japanese characters." Computer 18.l:18-24.

15. Leung, Che Kan, Pui-wan Cheng, and Robert Mulcahy. 1987. "Automatic processing of morphemic orthography by mature readers." Language and Speech 30.2. (Supplementary reading)

16. Light, Timothy. 1976. "Comparative reading speeds with romanized and character texts." J. of the Chinese Language Teachers Association XI.1:1-10.

17. Ng, Sally M. 1976. "The phonetic aspect of character simplification." J. of the Chinese Language Teachers Association XI.3:179-186.

18. Norman, Jerry. 1988. Chinese. Cambridge: Cambridge U. Press.

19. Paradis, Michel, Hiroko Hagiwara, and Nancy Hildebrandt. 1985. Neurolinguistic Aspects of the Japanese Writing System. Orlando, Florida: Academic Press. (Supplementary reading)

20. Ramsey, S. Robert. 1987. The Languages of China. Princeton U. Press. (Part II. The Minority Languages of China, pp. 157-291.)

21. Sampson, Geoffrey. 1985. Writing Systems: A Linguistic Introduction. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

22. Sasanuma, Sumiko, Motonobu Itoh, Kazuko Mori and Yo Kobayashi. 1977. "Tachistoscopic recognition of kana and kanji words." Neuropsychologia 15:547-553. (Supplementary reading)

23. Tong, John S. 1976. "Human bodily gestures and the formation of Chinese characters." J. of the Chinese Language Teachers Association XI.1:39-47.

24. Treiman, Rebecca A., Jonathan Baron, and Kenneth Luk. 1981. "Speech recoding in silent reading: a comparison of Chinese and English." J. of Chinese Linguistics 9:116-125.

25. Tzeng, Ovid J.L., Daisy L. Hung, and Linda Garro. 1978. "Reading the Chinese characters: an information processing view." J. of Chinese Linguistics 6.2:287-305.

26. Tzeng, Ovid J.L., Daisy L. Hung, Bill Cotton, and William S-Y. Wang. 1979. "Visual lateralisation effect in reading Chinese characters." Nature 282 (29 November 1979). Pp. 499-501.

27. Yu, Bolin, Wutian Zhang, Qicheng Jing, Ruixiang Peng, Guojun Zhang, and Herbert A. Simon. 1985. "STM capacity for Chinese and English language materials." Memory and Cognition 13.3:202-207. [STM = Short Term Memory]

28. Zhang, Guojun and Herbert A. Simon. 1985. "STM capacity for Chinese words and idioms: Chunking and acoustical loop hypotheses." Memory and Cognition 13.3:193-201.

[ MC's Home Page | DEALL Home Page | MC's ChinaLinks ]
[ The Ohio State University ]

Copyright © 1998-200x Marjorie K.M. Chan. All rights reserved. Created 15 February 1998. Last update: 18 August 2002 for archival purposes. There were 2,695 hits between 02/15/98 and 08/18/02. URL: http://people.cohums.ohio-state.edu/chan9/c683-s88.htm