Toward a History of Cross-Cultural Written Symbols

• 作者: Javier Terrado-Pablo
• 来源期刊: 语言与符号学研究
• 学科: 文学
• 关键词: SEMIOTICS SYMBOLS WRITTEN systems evolution CROSS-CULTURAL HISTORY
• 年，卷（期）: 2017,（1）
• 页码范围: 62-78
• 页数: 17页
• 分类号: H

摘要

It is our assumption that the goal of primitive written symbols was to create suprasubjective representations.We feel that this has continued to be the case throughout the course of history.In an increasingly globalised world,this goal seems even more evident,and we could highlight that symbolic representations tend to be supraregional,supranational,supracultural,and supraideological.Arabic,Chinese,and Suzhou numerals are nowadays restricted to specific uses and regions.Instead,Hindu-Arabic numerals,widely spread by modern computers,are commonly used everywhere.Millions of people know the meaning of symbols such as 2,3,4,5,=,≠,≥,√,and∞.Almost everybody is able to recognize the usual iconic signs that mean‘disabled person’or‘smoking is forbidden’.And in spite of its importance in contemporary society,a project devoted to the study of the origins,spreading,and evolution of those symbols is still lacking.The aim of our paper is to point out the theoretical and methodological assumptions upon which a history of cross-cultural written symbols should be undertaken.In this essay we consider the opportunity to study the history of written symbols a chapter in the evolution of mankind marked by a twofold1 process:on the one side,the divergence of symbolic systems all around the world in past times,and on the other,the symptoms of a convergence of these systems at present,or we might say,the will of convergence toward new,unified systems.