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Mind the gap: Why is there no general purpose ideographic system?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 October 2023

Kim Sterelny Open the ORCID record for Kim Sterelny [Opens in a new window]
Kim Sterelny*
Affiliation:
School of Philosophy, Research School of the Social Sciences, Australian National University, Acton, ACT, Australia Kim.Sterelny@anu.edu.au
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Abstract

Morin has identified an intriguing puzzle about human communication systems, and one element of the solution: Inscriptional sign systems pose more coordination problems, making sender/receiver coadaptation more difficult. But I reject his view of written language, concluding that inscriptional sign systems can be generalist. The upshot is a cost-based proposal about why generalist ideographic systems are essentially unknown.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 46 , 2023 , e252
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press

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References

Levinson, S. C. (2019). Interactional foundations of language: The interaction engine hypothesis. In Hagoort, P. (Ed.), Human language: From genes and brain to behavior (pp. 189–200). MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar