The status of the word in selected conventional writing systems — the case of disjunctive writing

Abstract

It is a common belief in language studies that the 'word' is the basic unit of language. Bolinger (1963: 113) very aptly asks:Why is it that the element of language which the naïve speaker feels that [they] know best [sic] is the one about which linguistics says the least? To the untutored person, speaking is putting words together, writing is a matter of correct word-spelling and word-spacing, translating is getting words to match words, meaning is a matter of word definitions, and linguistic change is merely the addition or loss or corruption of words. In this article, we investigate the factors that have determined the delimitation of words in a language such as Northern Sotho, which uses the disjunctive system of writing, and consider the implications of the shortcomings of such a writing system vis-à-vis the agglutinating languages of Southern Africa. As Lyons (1968: 194) observes:The word is the unit par excellence of traditional grammatical theory. It is the basis of the distinction which is frequently drawn between morphology and syntax and it is the principal unit of lexicography (or 'dictionary-making'). Dixon and Aikhenvald (2002: 5) have noted that some of the definitions that have been put forward for the term 'word' have been 'horrifying in their complexity and clearly infringe the principle that a definition should not be more difficult to understand than the word it purports to define'. And yet some definitions have been simplistic, such as that of Sapir's (1921: 34), where he states that the word is 'one of the smallest, completely satisfying bits of isolated "meaning" into which the sentence resolves itself'. Such definitions do not assist in providing criteria for deciding on what truly constitutes a word in a given language.The question of what constitutes a word in the African languages has been a controversial issue ever since African languages were committed to writing by the early missionaries, and yet it still remains at the very core of the most recent approaches to linguistic analysis including typological, cognitive and computational linguistics. In fact, as recently as 2002, in the book Word: A crosslinguistic typology, the editors Dixon and Aikhenvald begin their introductory chapter by stating on Abstract: In this article, the issue of the status or nature of the word is revisited with specific reference to languages which employ the disjunctive system of writing. Although it is generally assumed that the 'word' represents the basic unit of language, it is shown that the factors underlying the delimitation of this unit remain a debatable issue. Traditional tests in determining word boundaries are shown to be inconsistent in their application and such shortcomings have not only hampered a clear understanding of the nature of the word in languages which employ the disjunctive system of writing, but have also blurred a more universal approach to the definition of the 'word' vis-à-vis other languages within the same family, which employ the conjunctive system of writing.

A comparison of the early reading strategies of isiXhosa and Setswana first language learners

“…This is highly relevant given that the linguistic features of a language are reflected in its writing system. For example, the presence of phonological processes of vowel coalescence and elision in the Nguni language group make the use of a disjunctive script impractical (Louwrens & Poulos 2006). This is illustrated in example (3) below where two vowels 'a' and 'u' in sequence coalesce into 'o', making disjunctive transcription at odds with the phonetic pronunciation (Probert & De Vos 2016).…”

A Linguistic Research Programme for Reading in African Languages to underpin CAPS

“…The question of orthography also plays an important linguistic role. Bantu languages are agglutinative in natureinformally speaking, this means that a whole sentence can be expressed in a single word -and consequently the nature of the "word" differs from that in English (Guthrie 1948, Louwrens & Poulos 2006, Prinsloo 2009, Van Wyk 1995.…”

Word recognition strategies amongst isiXhosa/English bilingual learners: The interaction of orthography and language of learning and teaching

“…Orthographies are, more often than not, a set of linguistic and sociocultural compromises developed in particular social contexts. For instance, although all South African Bantu languages are agglutinative in their linguistic structure, they may have either conjunctive or disjunctive orthographies, reflecting both the linguistic and social decisions that went into their transcription (Louwrens & Poulos 2006). Thirdly, learners have at their disposal a number of cognitive tools which they use to solve the reading puzzles presented to them.…”

“…This study emphasises that literacies in different languages present readers with different structural puzzles which require language-particular suites of cognitive reading skills. The nature of words is language specific (Guthrie 1948;Louwrens & Poulos 2006;Prinsloo 2009). All Bantu languages are agglutinating and consequently a Bantu word includes rich, overt morphology.…”

“…This correspondence between orthographic and morphological words is a characteristic feature of conjunctive orthographies which distinguishes them from disjunctive scripts, such as Northern Sotho (3b) and English (Taljard & Bosch 2006), although all South African Bantu languages have aspects of both conjunctive and disjunctive systems triggered by linguistic context (Louwrens & Poulos 2006).…”