Grammatology

Summary

Grammatology is the science of writing. It is closely related to linguistics but concentrates on written expression, whereas linguistics is primarily oriented toward oral expression. Grammatology is an interdisciplinary field applied to research in various fields studying human interaction and communication and the various cultures and civilizations. Anthropologists, psychologists, literary critics, and language scholars are the primary users of grammatology. Electracy, often conflated with digital literacy, is a concept that applies the principles of grammatology to electronic media.

Definition and Basic Principles

Grammatology is the scientific examination of writing. Oral communication is the natural means of communication for human beings. Oral language uses neither instruments nor objects that are not part of the human body. Writing, by contrast, is not natural language; it requires an object (paper, stone, wood, or even sand) on which marks can be made and some kind of tool to make the marks. Although it is possible to use one's fingers to make marks in a soft medium such as sand, such "writing" lacks an essential feature of writing as defined by grammatology: writing lasts beyond the moment of its creation. It preserves thoughts, ideas, stories, and accounts of various human activities.

In addition, writing, in contrast to pictography (drawn pictures), can be understood only with knowledge of the language it represents because writing uses symbols to create a communication system. The discipline defines what writing is by using a system of typologies, or types. An example is the classification of languages by script (the kind of basic symbols used). Another way of classifying languages is by the method used to write them; linear writing systems use lines to compose the characters.

Grammatology also investigates the importance of writing in developing human thought and reasoning. Grammatologists address the role of writing in the development of cultures and its significance in the changes that occur in cultures. Grammatology proposes the basic principle that changes in ways of communication have profound effects on both the individual and the societal life of people. It addresses the technology of writing and its influence on the use and development of language. It deals extensively with the impact of the change from oral to handwritten communication, from handwritten texts to printed texts, and from printed texts to electronic media texts.

Background and History

Polish American historian Ignace Gelb, the founder of grammatology, was the first linguist to propose a science of writing independent of linguistics. In 1952, he published A Study of Writing: The Foundations of Grammatology, in which he classified writing systems according to their typologies and set forth general principles for the classification of writing systems. As part of his science of writing systems, Gelb traced the evolution of writing from pictures that he referred to as "no writing" through semasiography to full writing or scripts that designate sounds by characters. Gelb divided languages into three typologies: logo-syllabic systems, syllabic systems, and alphabetic systems. Peter T. Daniels, one of Gelb's students, added two additional types to this typology: abugida and abjad. Gelb also included as part of the science of writing an investigation of the interactions of writing and culture and of writing and religion as well as an analysis of the relationship of writing to speech or oral language. Although Gelb did not elaborate extensively on the concept of writing as a technology, he did address the importance of the invention of printing and the changes it brought about in the dissemination of information. This aspect of writing (by hand or device) as technology, as an apparatus of communication, has become one of the most significant areas of applying grammatology to other disciplines.

Gelb's work laid the foundation for significant research and development in several fields involved in language study. Eric Havelock, a classicist working in Greek literature, elaborated on the idea of how the means of communication affect thought. He developed the theory that Greek thought underwent a major change or shift when the oral tradition was replaced by written texts. In Havelock's Preface to Plato (1963), he argued the transition to writing at the time of Plato altered Greek thought and, consequently, all Western thought by its effect on the kind of thinking available through written expression. Havelock stated that what could be expressed and how it could be expressed in written Greek was significantly different from what could be expressed orally. He devoted the rest of his scholarship to elaborating this premise and investigation of the difference between oral tradition and writing. Havelock's theory met with criticism from many of his colleagues in the classics, but it received a favorable reception in many fields, including literature and anthropology.

Starting from Havelock's theory, Walter J. Ong, a literary scholar and philosopher, further investigated the relationship between written and spoken language and how each affects culture and thought. He proposed that writing is a technology and, therefore, has the potential to affect virtually all aspects of an oral culture. Addressing the issue of writing's effect on ways of thinking, Ong stated that training in writing shifted the mental focus of an individual. Ong reasoned that oral cultures are group-directed, and those using the technology of writing are directed toward the individual. His most influential work is Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word (1982). The British anthropologist Sir John "Jack" Rankine Goody applied the basic premise of grammatology (that the technology of writing influences and changes society) in his work in comparative anthropology. For Goody, writing was a significant cause of change in society, affecting its social interaction and psychological orientation.

In De la Grammatologie (1967; Of Grammatology, 1976), French philosopher and literary critic Jacques Derrida examined the relationship between spoken language and writing. By using Gelb's term "grammatology" as a term of literary criticism, Derrida narrowed the significance of the term. Grammatology became associated with the literary theory of deconstruction. However, Derrida's work had more far-reaching implications, and for Derrida, as for Gelb, grammatology meant the science of writing. Derrida was attempting to free writing from being merely a representation of speech.

In Applied Grammatology: Post(e)-pedagogy from Jacques Derrida to Joseph Beuys (1985), Gregory Ulmer moved from deconstructing writing to a grammatology that he defined as inventive writing. Although Ulmer's work moves away from the systems and classifications of writing established by Gelb, it does elaborate on Gelb's notion of how literacy or the technology of writing changes human thought and interaction. Ulmer's work brought Gelb's theories and work into the electronic age. Gelb and his followers investigated the development of writing systems and the technologies of handwritten and printed texts and their influences on human beings, both in their social interactions and thought processes. Just as print influenced the use, role, and significance of writing, electronic media significantly affects writing, both in what it is and what it does.

How It Works

Classification by Typologies. Written languages are classified based on particular features of the language. Grammatologists analyze written languages to determine whether the basic element of the language is a syllable, a letter, a word, or some other element. They also look for similarities among languages that they compare. From these analyses, they classify languages in existing typologies or create new ones. The established typologies are logographic, syllabic, alphabetic, abjad, and abugida.

Mechanisms and Apparatuses. Grammatology identifies the mechanisms or the apparatuses of writing. It examines how writing is produced, what type of tools are used to produce it, and the kind of texts that result from writing. It also considers the speed and breadth of dissemination of information through writing. Grammatology looks at writing systems from a practical viewpoint, considering questions of accuracy and ease of usage.

Relationship of Oral and Written Language. Grammatologists investigate the relationship between oral and written language by comparing a language in its oral and written form. They look for differences in sentence structure, vocabulary, and complexity of usage.

Writing and Social Structure. Grammatologists note the time that writing appears in a culture and analyze the social, political, economic, and family structures to ascertain any changes that appear after the introduction of writing. They also attempt to identify the type of thinking, ideas, and beliefs prevalent in the society before and after the introduction of writing and determine if writing brought about changes in these areas. Once they have established evidence of change, they address how writing causes these modifications. In addition, they investigate these same areas when the mechanism of writing in a culture changes, such as when print replaces handwritten texts and when electronic media replaces print.

Applications and Products

Pedagogy. The science of grammatology is essential to developing pedagogies that adequately address the needs and orientations of students. How information is presented and taught varies with the medium by which students are accustomed to receiving knowledge. In an oral culture, stories, poems, and proverbs that use repetitive signifiers are employed to enable students to memorize information. Handwritten texts are suited to cultures where a small amount of information is disseminated among a limited number of students. Print text cultures rely heavily on disseminating information through books and other printed sources.

Instruction is classroom-based, with face-to-face contact between the teacher and student. Assignments are written and submitted to the professor to be corrected and returned. Cultures that rely on electronic media call for different pedagogical structures. Grammatology provides a means of analyzing and addressing this need.

Anthropology. Anthropologists use grammatology as an integral part of their research techniques to ascertain the development of civilizations and cultures. The time when writing appeared in a culture (or the lack of writing in a culture), the type of writing, and the classes of society that use writing are all important to studying and understanding a culture or civilization.

Literary Criticism. Grammatology enables literary critics to dissect or deconstruct texts and perform close analysis of both their structure and meaning. It has also been the basis for creating new types of literary criticism, including deconstruction and postdeconstruction.

Linguistics. Grammatology, which deals with the written form of language, plays a vital role in linguistics, the study of languages. It classifies languages, addresses how graphemes (units of a writing system) and allographs (letters) are used, compares written to oral forms of languages, and identifies archaic forms and vocabularies. Studying writing forms is necessary for linguists to trace a particular language's development. Texts written in the language during different periods permit linguists to compare the language's vocabulary, syntax, and prosaic and poetic forms throughout its development. Written texts also provide evidence of borrowings from other languages.

Archaeology. The ability to analyze and classify written language is an essential part of the archeologist's work. Knowledge regarding when particular written forms were used and what cultures used them plays an essential role in artifact dating.

Electronic Media. Grammatology is highly applicable to cyberlanguage and electronic media as these phenomena affect writing. Texting, email, and other forms of electronic written communication have created what may be viewed as a subtext or alternative to traditional print culture. The principles and techniques of grammatology analysis provide a means for classifying the language of texting and email and for evaluating the effects of these new forms of language on thought and on societal interaction.

Careers and Course Work

Courses in linguistics, the history of language, and the composition and grammar of the language or languages with which an individual wishes to work form the basis of preparation for a career in grammatology as a subdiscipline of linguistics. However, grammatology is also relevant to a wide variety of careers. Majors in the history of language and in various disciplines such as anthropology, pedagogy, history, literature, psychology, electronic media, and cyberlanguage can be combined with the study of grammatology. Grammatologists mostly work in one of these fields and apply their knowledge of writing systems and their importance to that field. They usually have a doctorate and are employed as university professors or in scientific research centers or consulting firms.

Social Context and Future Prospects

With the changes in the mechanisms and apparatus of writing that took place in the second half of the twentieth century and continue to take place in the twenty-first, grammatology continues to be an essential science. Research in electronic media and its relation to human thought processes will be an area in which grammatology will play an important role. Indeed, as technology, including mobile technology, had further advanced and become increasingly accessible by the end of the second decade of the twenty-first century, and people relied more and more upon digital means of communication, studies focused on areas such as writing on popular social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Grammatologists also began using artificial intelligence to analyze the historical and cultural contexts of texts. Because grammatology is a science used in conjunction with a considerable number of areas of scientific research, it should continue to play a significant role in human intellectual life.

Bibliography

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