Journal Article

De schriftelijke bril opgepoetst

Foolen, Ad

2020

Overview

In a special issue of Nederlandse Taalkunde (vol. 13(2), 2008), eight discussants commented on the so-called written language bias thesis, which claims that in literate societies, both naive language users and linguists perceive spoken language in terms of units that are in fact properties of writing: letters, words, and sentences. This thesis was discussed and defended in a lengthy book from 2006, Homo loquens en homo scribens, written by A. Kraak (1928-2005). The special issue contained a spectrum of opinions pro and contra the thesis. The present article looks back at that discussion and tries to bring it to a new level, making use of ideas brought in by Davidson (2019). That article helps to understand why opinions can be so diverse: They address different aspects of a reality that is rather complex. The idea that writing is simply the rendering of spoken language in another medium is not doing justice to this complex reality. As Davidson argues, a proper treatment of the written language bias issue is only possible in a new theoretical perspective.

• Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
• Subject: Attitudes / Bias / Language / Linguists / Property / Reality / Spoken language / Written language