Writing and Literacy in Chinese, Korean and Japanese

Revised edition

Insup Taylor

M. Martin Taylor

Hardbound – Available

ISBN 9789027218094 | EUR 110.00 | USD 165.00

Paperback – Available

ISBN 9789027218100 | EUR 25.00 | USD 37.95

e-Book –

ISBN 9789027269447 | EUR 110.00/25.00*
| USD 165.00/37.95*

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.

This title replaces:
Writing and Literacy in Chinese, Korean and Japanese, Insup Taylor and M. Martin Taylor (1995)

[Studies in Written Language and Literacy, 14] 2014. xix, 487 pp.

Publishing status: Available

https://doi.org/10.1075/swll.14

Table of Contents

About the authors | p. xv

Preface | pp. xvii–xviii

Acknowledgements | p. xix

Part I. Chinese

Spoken Chinese | pp. 21–36

Chinese characters: Hanzi | pp. 37–55

Meaning representation in characters | pp. 56–74

Sound representation by characters | pp. 75–84

History of education and literacy in China | pp. 85–111

Reforming spoken and written Chinese | pp. 112–129

School, and learning to read in Chinese | pp. 130–152

Summary and conclusions | pp. 153–154

Part II. Korean

Korean language | pp. 157–171

Hancha: Chinese characters | pp. 172–179

Han’g?l: Alphabetic syllabary | pp. 180–198

Learning and using Han’g?l | pp. 199–222

Why should Hancha be kept? | pp. 223–235

History of education and literacy in Korea | pp. 236–252

Summary and conclusions | pp. 253–254

Part III. Japanese

Japanese language | pp. 257–270

Kanji: Chinese characters | pp. 271–283

Kana: Japanese syllabary | pp. 284–293

R?maji: Roman letters | pp. 294–302

Why keep Kanji? | pp. 303–321

History of mass literacy in Japan | pp. 322–332

Learning and using Kanji and Kana | pp. 333–351

The Japanese educational system | pp. 352–360

Summary and conclusions | pp. 361–362

Part IV. Common issues

Eye movements and text writing in East Asia | pp. 365–379

Reading and the brain | pp. 380–394

East Asian students in international tests | pp. 395–404

Logographic characters vs phonetic scripts | pp. 405–420

Afterthoughts | pp. 421–422

Glossary | pp. 423–437

Name index | pp. 463–469

Subject index | pp. 471–487

“[The book] provides an excellent account of writing and literacy in three national languages of East Asia .... It is strongly recommended not only to those working on writing and literacy, but to broad typologists and cognitive linguists.”

Toshio Ohori, University of Tokyo, in Studies in Language, vol. 25, No 1, 2001, pp 173-177. On the first edition.

“Overall, this is a valuable book [...]. For the reader who is not a specialist in East Asian languages, it provides a great deal of information about writing and literacy that would otherwise be hard to find in one place. Due to its broad scope, even specialists are likely to find new information on some topics.”

William J. Poser, University of Pennsylvania, in Anthropological Linguistics, vol 44, No 1, 2002. pp 103-106. On the first edition.

“The first edition of the book covered a wide-range of topics in writing and literacy in the three East Asian languages, in relation to each other and to English. The second edition is thoroughly updated, especially in reading research. I heartily recommend it to both academic communities and the general public.”

Cho Jeung Ryeul, Kyungnam University, South Korea

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This list is based on CrossRef data as of 27 september 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

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