Chapter 5 Print Language, Literate Culture

1. Chapter 5Print Language, Literate Culture

2. Written Language, textual culture • Historical perspective on how technology affected the relationship bet language & culture: • Invention of writing (3000 BC) • Oral tradition textual tradition • Chinese scribal culture/ passing wisdom & truths • Text’s meaning/ social prestige ‘literate education’ • Clip (24) • Respect to textual authority was imp to early religious traditions/ study of sacred texts revelation / to recover the original truths passed orally By God, angels and prophets. • The absurdity of the quest of one ‘true’ meaning/ multiple meanings/ legal documents ‘re-interpreted’

3. Print & Power • Institutional power ensuring cultural continuity • medieval times/ monks & scribes… gate keepers & interpreters of tradition against cultural change. • Print culture: • no need to hand copy • Religious authority decline • Translation of Bible meanings & truth accessible to all • Church monopoly replaced by secular power • Traditional academic practice imposed its own context of interpretation/ emphasized form over meaning/ interpretation should be independent of reader’s response/ ‘bad student’

4. Social Construction of Literacy • Recent types of literacieslinked to various genres: • Literary literacy/ press/ instructional manuals/ scientific/ marketing/ novels & poems • To be literate to understand & manipulate social & cultural meanings of print language in thoughts, feelings and actions. • Children from different social backgrounds different types of literacies. (e.g. narrative style)

5. Text and Discourse • Written language can be looked at as either text (fixed and stable) or discourse (interactive and inferential) • Text: • A stretch of written language as the product of intention • has a fixed & stable relation to its context of culture • Discourse: • (A) via coherence • e.g. deictic “this” in poem/ either demonstrative ‘cohesive device’/ or discourse indicative ‘factor of coherence’ • (B) via internal cohesion • e.g. Aspirin label considering ‘corporate culture’/ commercial & legal interests must be included when interpreting text/ coherent discourse • (C) Cultural coherence • e.g. ‘American independence’/ most difficult for foreign readers/ drawing on reader’s cultural knowledge

6. Literacy event, prior text, point of view • Literacy event: The interaction of the reader with the text within a social context. • Defined by (common social practices with written texts/ common ways of interpretation) • Includes situational & cultural dimensions • Situational context • Events • Audience • Purpose • Text’s register • Its key • Prior text • Point of view • Discourse • clip

7. Genre • Genre: • In general ( a class or category of art (or any other field) having a particular form, content, or technique. e.g, the genre of ‘epic poetry’) • A socially approved type of communicative event, either spoken or printed. • Dependent on specific context of situation or culture. • Related to text type & language choice/ e.g. ‘sermon’ register • Clip

8. Summary