/gʁafematik/

Grapholinguistics in the 21st century—From graphemes to knowledge

8-10.6.2022

From clay tablet to digital tablet:

the diamesic variation of writing

Sveva Elti di Rodeano

University of Udine, PhD in Linguistics
1. Diamesia: history and definition

2. Diamesia in Linguistics

3. Diamesia in Grapholinguistics

4. Medium, mode and modality

5. Conclusion
1. Diamesia: history and definition

2. Diamesia in Linguistics

3. Diamesia in Grapholinguistics

4. Medium, mode and modality

5. Conclusion
1. Diamesia: history and definition

Flydal (1952) «Le tout systématique qu’est la structure de langue se divise en systèmes partiels. Ces sys- tèmes

partiels sont les uns par rapport aux autres des coexistences temporelles qui sont en même temps des

coexistences spatiales et sociales. Nous les nommons coexistences structurales régulières.» (1952: 255);

Coseriu (1955-56, 1966, 1969, 1973, 1980a, 1998) «On y constate, [...], trois types de différences internes, [...]:

différences dans l’espace géographique, ou différences diatopiques; différences entre les couches socio-

culturelles de la communauté linguistique, ou différences diastratiques; et différences entre les types de

modalité expressive ou différences diaphasiques.» (1966: 198)

1. Diamesia: history and definition

Mioni (1983): Il diverso grado di standardizzazione degli italiani è connesso con tutte le dimensioni della

variabilità linguistica: (...) differenze del mezzo via via usato per comunicare (per le quali si potrebbe

usare il neologismo di ‘dimensione diamesica’). Queste ultime non consistono in una pura e semplice

opposizione polare tra scritto e orale, ma in un continuum di gradini intermedi: il più interessante

contributo in merito (Gregory 1967) tratta di tale varietà di situazioni, facendo osservare che vi sono, ad

es., testi scritti, testi scritti per la sola lettura e cioè per non essere letti ad alta voce, ecc.
1. Diamesia: history and definition

2. Diamesia in Linguistics

3. Diamesia in Grapholinguistics

4. Medium, mode and modality

5. Conclusion
1. Diamesia: history and definition

2. Diamesia in Linguistics

3. Diamesia in Grapholinguistics

4. Medium, mode and modality

5. Conclusion
2. Diamesia in Linguistics

Diamesia and Diaphasia

Ø Albrecht 1986

Ø Koch – Oesterreicher 2001

Ø Hans – Bianchi 2005

Ø Berruto – Cerruti 2014

2. Diamesia in Linguistics

Ø Koch – Oesterreicher (1985, 1990, 1994, 2011): “Der von Mioni (1983, 508) eingeführte und in der

italienischen und italienistischen Forschung verbreitete Terminus ‘diamesisch’ ist insofern, wiewohl aus

Gründen der terminologischen Symmetrie recht praktisch, nicht sehr glücklich, weil er auf das Medium

(agr. µέσoν entsprechend lat. medium) abhebt“ (1990: 143 n. 3).

Ø Medium und Konzeption (Söll 1974, 1985) > konzeptionelle Mündlichkeit (Sprache der Nähe) und

konzeptionelle Schriftlichkeit (Sprache der Distanz)

Ø Dürscheid (2018): medium1 modalitätbezogen; medium2 technikbezogen; medium3 prozessorientierter

Medienbegriff (Schneider 2016)

1. Diamesia: history and definition

2. Diamesia in Linguistics

3. Diamesia in Grapholinguistics

4. Medium, mode and modality

5. Conclusion
1. Diamesia: history and definition

2. Diamesia in Linguistics

3. Diamesia in Grapholinguistics

4. Medium, mode and modality

5. Conclusion
3. Diamesia in Grapholinguistics

Ø Bunčić – Lippert – Rabus (2016): «For the choice of script, in may cases of digraphia the writing material –

parchment, wood, stone [...] – plays an important role as well. [...] Such situations can therefore be called

medial digraphia» (p. 58); «an Italian tradition of referring to a similiarly defined kind of variation as

diamesic (from Greek µέσον ‘middle’, a cognate of Latin medium). This adjective will be use there to

denote a type of digraphia governed by the distiction introduced by Koch & Oesterreicher (1985), viz.

diamesic digraphia» (p. 59).

3. Diamesia in Grapholinguistics

Ø Meletis (2020): «Based on the type of opposition – in the Trubelkoyan sense – between two scripts, Bunčić

assumes privative and equipollent situations. In (1) digraphia, there is a privative opposition between

scripts, meaning one script is lacking a feature that is exhibited by the other script. Which of the two scripts

is used in given situations is determined by (1a) diaphasic (pertaining to registers and style), (1b) diastratic

(pertaining to social strata), (1c) diamesic (pertaining to the conceptual dimension of wriqen vs. spoken

established by Koch & Oesterreicher 1985), or (1d) medial (depending on the writing material) factors.»

(ibid. 334)
3. Diamesia in Grapholinguistics

Ø Meletis (2020): «The hybrid functional nature of both writing and speech is captured by a conceptual

distinction that has been impactful in the German-speaking realm: Koch & Oesterreicher’s (1985, 1994; for

an English translation, cf. Koch & Oesterreicher 2012) continuum of orality and literacy (cf. also Biber 1988).

In their conception, the dimension of medium – whether a text is medially, i.e. materially, realized in the

spoken or written modality – is divorced from the conceptual dimension.» (ibid. 350)
3. Diamesia in Grapholinguistics

Ø Status of medium in lingusitics and grapholinguistics

Ø «Many of the respective features of writing and speech stem from the fact that they are distinct

materializations of language» (Meletis 2020: 72)

Ø «Die gesprochene Sprache stellt ein Lautkontinuum dar, sie erstreckt sich in der Zeit. Die geschriebene

Sprache enthält diskrete Einheiten. Diese haben eine räumliche Ausdehnung.» (Dürscheid 2016: 29)

Ø Writing as medium, writing has media

1. Diamesia: history and definition

2. Diamesia in Linguistics

3. Diamesia in Grapholinguistics

4. Medium, mode and modality

5. Conclusion
1. Diamesia: history and definition

2. Diamesia in Linguistics

3. Diamesia in Grapholinguistics

4. Medium, mode and modality

5. Conclusion
4. Medium, mode and modality
4.1. Media as «realisierungsformen für sprachliche Außerungen» (Koch – Oesterreicher 1985: 17),

«Materialität des Zeichens» (Krefeld 2017)

4.2. Mode (of transmission) as «the execution and the reception» (WaJ 1983: 1543)

4.3. Modalität (Adamzik 2016, Dürscheid 2018)

4. Medium, mode and modality
4.1. Media as «realisierungsformen für sprachliche Außerungen» (Koch–Oesterreicher 1985: 17),

«Materialität des Zeichens» (Krefeld 2017)

à Material media: writing bearing object

4.2. Mode (of transmission) as «the execution and the reception» (Watt 1983: 1543)

4.3. Modalität (Adamzik 2016, Dürscheid 2018)

 4.1. Material media: writing bearing object
Ø Maqhews (2013): «In the cuneiform world there is a strong contrast between the clay tablets, the majority

of which come from archive contexts and were probably intended for use by those who could read them,

and inscriptions on stone which were mostly situated in public or semi-public places and were meant to

be seen and to impress a wide range of people including those, probably the majority, who could not

actually read them” (ibid. 73)

“Let me read the tablets in the presence of the king, my lord, and let me put down on them whatever is agreeable to
the king; whatever is not acceptable to the king, I shall remove from them. The tablets I am speaking about are worth
preserving until far-off days. “
SAA X 373 R. 4-13 (= ABL 334)
4. Medium, mode and modality
4.1. Media as «realisierungsformen für sprachliche Außerungen» (Koch–Oesterreicher 1985: 17),

«Materialität des Zeichens» (Krefeld 2017)

4.2. Mode (of transmission) as «the execution and the reception» (Watt 1983: 1543)

4.3. Modalität (Adamzik 2016, Dürscheid 2018)

4. Medium, mode and modality
4.1. Media as «realisierungsformen für sprachliche Außerungen» (Koch–Oesterreicher 1985: 17),

«Materialität des Zeichens» (Krefeld 2017)

4.2. Mode (of transmission) as «the execution and the reception» (Watt 1983: 1543)

à Graphetic features of writing

4.3. Modalität (Adamzik 2016, Dürscheid 2018)

4.2. Graphetic features of writing
Ø Overmann (2021): «In a literate brain, the region with an evolutionarily provided function for recognizing

physical objects becomes trained to recognize written characters as if they were physical objects, interpret

them through the gestures of handwriting, and associate them with the meanings and sounds of language.

Sunch reorganization involves not just brains but behaviors and material forms as well»

«Biomechanics of production: the use of hands and arms, as well as head and body positions tht affect

how objcts used for writing are held, oriented, viewd, and manipulated» (ibid. 98)
4.2. Graphetic features of writing
Ø Proto-cuneiform (Uruk IVa 3500-3300 BC – Uruk III 3300-3000 BC)

Sign U4 in W 9206,a1 (Uruk IVa) Sign U4 in W 5233,b (Uruk III)

(images from the Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative website)
4. Medium, mode and modality
4.1. Media as «realisierungsformen für sprachliche Außerungen» (Koch–Oesterreicher 1985: 17),

«Materialität des Zeichens» (Krefeld 2017)

4.2. Mode (of transmission) as «the execution and the reception» (Watt 1983: 1543)

4.3. Modalität (Adamzik 2016, Dürscheid 2018)

4. Medium, mode and modality
4.1. Media as «realisierungsformen für sprachliche Außerungen» (Koch–Oesterreicher 1985: 17),

«Materialität des Zeichens» (Krefeld 2017)

4.2. Mode (of transmission) as «the execution and the reception» (WaJ 1983: 1543)

4.3. Modalität (Adamzik 2016, Dürscheid 2018)

à “the particular physical means by which an alphabet is executed and received” (WaJ 1983: 1543)
4.3. Modality
Ø Clement of Alexandria (Stromata V, iv, 20-21) Αὐτίκα οἱ παρ' Αἰγυπτίοις παιδευόµενοι πρῶτον µὲν

πάντων τὴν Αἰγυπτίων γραµµάτων µέθοδον ἐκµανθάνουσι, τὴν ἐπιστολογραφικὴν καλουµένην·

δευτέραν δὲ τὴν ἱερατικήν, ᾗ χρῶνται οἱ ἱερογραµµατεῖς· ὑστάτην δὲ καὶ τελευταίαν τὴν ἱερογλυφικήν

[...].

Now those instructed among the Egyptians learned first of all that style of the Egyptian legers which is

called Epistolographic; and second, the Hieratic, which the sacred scribes practice. And last of all, the

Hieroglyphic [...].
4.3. Modality
Ø Decree of Canopus (238 BC): hieroglyphs as “the script of the pr-Ꜥnh“ (hieroglyphic «sẖꜢ n pr-Ꜥnḫ», demotic

«sẖꜢ (n) pr-Ꜥnh», ἱερός in greek); demotic as “the document script“ (hieroglyphic «sẖꜢ n šꜤ.t», demotic «sẖꜢ

(n) šꜤ(.t)», Greek Αἰγύπτιος), and greek as “the script of the Aegean islanders“ (i.e., Greeks) (hieroglyphic

«sẖꜢ n ḥꜢ.w-nb.wt», demotic «sẖꜢ (n) wynn», Greek ἑλληνικοῖς (sc. γράµµασιν).

Ø Decree of Memphis (196 BC): hieroglyphs as “the script of the divine words” (hieroglyphic «sẖꜢ mdw-nṯr»;

demotic «sẖꜢ md(.t)-nṯr», Greek: ἱερός), demotic as “the document script” (hieroglyphic «sẖꜢ n šꜤy», demotic

«sẖꜢ (n) šꜤ.t», Greek: ἐγχώριος) and Greek as “the script of the Aegean islanders (i.e., Greeks)”.
1. Diamesia: history and definition

2. Diamesia in Linguistics

3. Diamesia in Grapholinguistics

4. Medium, mode and modality

5. Conclusion
1. Diamesia: history and definition

2. Diamesia in Linguistics

3. Diamesia in Grapholinguistics

4. Medium, mode and modality

5. Conclusion
5. Conclusion

Diamesia is the metalinguistic term referring to variation of writing depend upon the medium used for

carry out the communication.

The medium of writing consists of material and technological features, time and space related, which

bring together the conceiving sender and the receiving reciepient, leading to graphemic and graphematic

variation of writing.
Thanks for your aDention!