what is

language?

Language is a system of units and rules. The units are words and the rules are the forms of grammar which order words. In different languages the grammar rules are different, as are the words, but the structure is still the same in all languages: words are put together within a grammatical system to make meaning.

Ferdinand du Saussure

• To Saussure spoken language is superior to written

• The (western) alphabet only simulates the sounds of the language

Writing obscures language

Tigerr

• Alphabetic writing is like a photograph– An automatic

record of the surface of language

Writing obscures language

Jaques DerridaPhonetic writing does not exist

Writing is not a secondary copy of speech

• Ideographic signs exist

• Graphemes

;214

Writing is not a secondary copy of speech

• Derrida is especially interested in word spacing

iamacat

Ellen Lupton

Typography … has moved writing away from speech

114

1150

1320

Typografi is what language looks like:

Dramatize the intrusion of visual form into verbal content, the invasion of ”ideas” by graphic marks, gaps and differences.