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.
Author(s): Insup Taylor, M. Martin Taylor
Series: Studies in Written Language and Literacy (Book 14)
Edition: Revised edition
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Year: 2014
Language: English
Pages: 487
Writing and Literacy in Chinese, Korean and Japanese
Editorial page
Title page
LCC data
About the authors
Preface
Acknowledgements
1. Introduction
How many Chinese, Koreans, and Japanese?
How are the three peoples related?
Languages of the world
Phoneme, syllable, onset-rime, and body-coda
Morpheme and word
Types of writing systems
Writing systems, their development and interrelations
Scripts and literacy: A preview
Chinese, Korean, and Japanese in Roman letters
A few words about experiments on reading
How the book is organized
Part I. Chinese
China and Chinese
2. Spoken Chinese
Standard language and “dialects”
Sound system
Morphemes: Words or word parts
Constructing two-morpheme words
Why compound words?
Foreign loan words
Full words, empty words, and classifiers
Sentence structures
3. Chinese characters: Hanzi
Beginning of characters
Evolution of characters’ styles
Chinese calligraphy
Six categories of characters
Number of characters
Strokes and shapes of characters
Complex vs simple characters
4. Meaning representation in characters
Pictographs and indicators
Radicals and semantic radicals
Characters tell stories
Compound words and idioms
Characters for abbreviations
Chinese numerals
Chinese personal names
Magical quality of characters
Characters understood across times and places
5. Sound representation by characters
A character’s sound
Phonetic radicals
Polyphonic, unpronounced, or homophonic characters
Phonetic loans and Fanqie
Phonetic scripts for Chinese
6. History of education and literacy in China
Confucianism and Confucian classics
The civil-service examination system
Chinese world views
Invention of paper and printing
Books and publications
Traditional and pre-1949 education
In women ignorance was virtue
History and degrees of literacy
7. Reforming spoken and written Chinese
Mandarin and Putonghua (common speech)
Literary vs vernacular language
Rationalizing the Chinese writing system
How characters are simplified
Romanization, Zhuyin Fuhao, and Pinyin
Computerizing Chinese characters
Keep or abandon characters?
8. School, and learning to read in Chinese
Primary and secondary schools: Growing, if unequally
Tertiary education
Should preschoolers be taught to read?
How Hanzi are taught to preschoolers
Teaching Hanzi (and English) in Chinese-speaking regions
How Hanzi are taught in school in China
Semantic radicals and phonetic radicals
Phonological awareness
Morphological (and phonological) awareness
Visual and orthographic processing
Developmental dyslexia or reading difficulty
Summary and conclusions
Part II. Korean
Korea and Koreans
9. Korean language
Speech sounds and syllables
Korean native words
Sino-Korean (S-K)words
Native words vs Sino-Korean words
European (and Japanese) loan words
Numerals and classifiers
Content words, grammatical morphemes, and sentences
Speech levels and honorifics
10. Hancha: Chinese characters
Hancha adoption
Complicated Hancha use in the past
Hancha use in the present
Misguided attempts to abolish Hancha
11. Han’gŭl: Alphabetic syllabary
Creation and adoption of Han’gŭl
Han’gŭl as an alphabet
Han’gŭl syllable blocks
Varied shapes and complexity of syllable blocks
Linear vs packaged arrangement of Han’gul letters
Changes in Han’gŭl since its creation
Was Han’gŭl an original creation?
Han’gŭl, an alphabetic syllabary or alpha-syllabary
12. Learning and using Han’gŭl
Teaching Han’gŭl as an alphabet or a syllabary
Preschoolers learn Han’gul
Schoolchildren learn to read in Han’gul
Instruction in Han’gŭl spelling
Han’gŭl spelling vs romanized spelling
Phonological awareness and salience of syllable
Morphological awareness
Visual skills
Poor readers in Han’gul
13. Why should Hancha be kept?
Advantages of Hancha
Disadvantages of not knowing Hancha
Korean personal names
Hancha-Han’gŭl mixed vs all-Han’gŭl text
Hancha teaching in secondary school
Streamline and keep Hancha
14. History of education and literacy in Korea
Civil service examination in Korea
Traditional education
Modern education
Education in S. Korea today
Printing and publications
Mass literacy
Summary and conclusions
Part III. Japanese
Japan and Japanese
15. Japanese language
Speech sounds, syllables, and moras
Composition of Japanese vocabulary
Japanese native vs Sino-Japanese (S-J) words
European and English loan words
Numerals and classifiers
Content words and grammatical morphemes
Sentence structures
16. Kanji: Chinese characters
Indigenous Japanese scripts?
Introduction and spread of Kanji
Kanji uses in different times
Kanji readings: On/Chinese and Kun/Japanese
Two-Kanji words: Readings
Kanji, Hancha, and Hanzi compared
17. Kana: Japanese syllabary
Kana: Origin and development
Kana graphs: Number and order
How to use Kana
Furigana or annotating Kana
Katakana for foreign loan words
18. Rōmaji: Roman letters
Rōmaji for European words and foreigners
Rōmaji styles: Hepburn, Japanese, and Cabinet
Should Rōmaji replace the Japanese scripts?
Disadvantages of Rōmaji
19. Why keep Kanji?
Kanji differentiate homophones
Meanings of Kanji words are grasped well
Kanji for compound words
Kanji for technical terms and abbreviations
Kanji stand out in mixed-script text
Kanji for personal names
Disadvantages of Kanji
Typing and word processing
Kanji use declined and then stabilized
20. History of mass literacy in Japan
Early limited literacy
Dawn of mass literacy
Mass literacy after World War II
History of books and publications
Manga! Manga!
21. Learning and using Kanji and Kana
Preschoolers acquire reading
Kana and Kanji teaching in school
Textbooks for reading instruction
Kanji vs Kana: Naming and extracting meaning
How well are Kanji read and written?
Dyslexia or poor reading in Japanese
22. The Japanese educational system
Primary and secondary school: Overview
Preschool and primary school
Middle and high school
Tertiary education
Japanese education: Problems and promises
Summary and conclusions
Part IV. Common issues
23. Eye movements and text writing in East Asia
Eye movements in reading English text
Eye movements in Chinese reading
Eye movements in Japanese and Korean reading
Conventions in writing/reading directions
Punctuation marks and spacing
Prose and paragraph structure
24. Reading and the brain
Human brain: Structures and functions
Brain processing when reading in Roman alphabets
Brain processing when reading in East Asian scripts
25. East Asian students in international tests
Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA)
Top Ten in the 2006, 2009, and 2012 assessments
PISA results: Some details
Factors that may not influence achievement
Factors that influence achievement sometimes
Factors that may matter
26. Logographic characters vs phonetic scripts
Logography, alphabet, and syllabary
Direct vs indirect access to meaning and sound
Words in logography vs phonetic script: Reading aloud
Logography vs phonetic script: Meaning extraction
Flexible routes to sounds and meanings of words
Logography vs phonetic script: Remembering
Logography vs phonetic script: Learning to read
Alphabet vs logography for science
Effects of scripts and literacy on cognition
Afterthoughts
Glossary
Bibliography
Name index
Subject index
