Grapheme
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In linguistics, a grapheme is the smallest functional unit of a writing system.[1] The word grapheme is derived from
Conceptualization
There are two main opposing grapheme concepts.[2]
In the so-called referential conception, graphemes are interpreted as the smallest units of writing that correspond with sounds (more accurately phonemes). In this concept, the sh in the written English word shake would be a grapheme because it represents the phoneme /ʃ/. This referential concept is linked to the dependency hypothesis that claims that writing merely depicts speech.
By contrast, the analogical concept defines graphemes analogously to phonemes, i.e. via written minimal pairs such as shake vs. snake. In this example, h and n are graphemes because they distinguish two words. This analogical concept is associated with the autonomy hypothesis which holds that writing is a system in its own right and should be studied independently from speech. Both concepts have weaknesses.[3]
Some models adhere to both concepts simultaneously by including two individual units,[4] which are given names such as graphemic grapheme for the grapheme according to the analogical conception (h in shake), and phonological-fit grapheme for the grapheme according to the referential concept (sh in shake).[5]
In newer concepts, in which the grapheme is interpreted
Notation
Graphemes are often notated within
Glyphs
In the same way that the
Thus, a grapheme can be regarded as an abstraction of a collection of glyphs that are all functionally equivalent.
For example, in written English (or other languages using the
U+0030
but exhibits variation in the form of slashed zero. Italic and bold face forms are also allographic, as is the variation seen in serif (as in Times New Roman) versus sans-serif (as in HelveticaThere is some disagreement as to whether capital and lower case letters are allographs or distinct graphemes. Capitals are generally found in certain triggering contexts that do not change the meaning of a word: a proper name, for example, or at the beginning of a sentence, or all caps in a newspaper headline. In other contexts, capitalization can determine meaning: compare, for example Polish and polish: the former is a language, the latter is for shining shoes.
Some linguists consider
Identical glyphs may not always represent the same grapheme. For example, the three letters ⟨A⟩, ⟨А⟩ and ⟨Α⟩ appear identical but each has a different meaning: in order, they are the Latin letter A, the Cyrillic letter Azǔ/Азъ and the Greek letter Alpha. Each has its own code point in Unicode: U+0041 A LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A, U+0410 А CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER A and U+0391 Α GREEK CAPITAL LETTER ALPHA.
Types of grapheme
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The principal types of graphemes are logograms (more accurately termed morphograms[9]), which represent words or morphemes (for example Chinese characters, the ampersand "&" representing the word and, Arabic numerals); syllabic characters, representing syllables (as in Japanese kana); and alphabetic letters, corresponding roughly to phonemes (see next section). For a full discussion of the different types, see Writing system § Functional classification.
There are additional graphemic components used in writing, such as
Relationship with phonemes
As mentioned in the previous section, in languages that use
Multigraphs representing a single phoneme are normally treated as combinations of separate letters, not as graphemes in their own right. However, in some languages a multigraph may be treated as a single unit for the purposes of collation; for example, in a Czech dictionary, the section for words that start with ⟨ch⟩ comes after that for ⟨h⟩.[10] For more examples, see Alphabetical order § Language-specific conventions.
See also
- Character (computing) – Primitive data type
- Grapheme–color synesthesia – Synesthesia that associates numbers or letters with colors
- Sign (semiotics) – Something that communicates meaning
References
- ^ Coulmas, F. (1996), The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Writing Systems. Oxford: Blackwell, p. 174
- ^ Lockwood, D. G. (2001), Phoneme and grapheme: How parallel can they be? LACUS Forum 27, 307–316.
- ^ Rezec, O. (2013), Ein differenzierteres Strukturmodell des deutschen Schriftsystems. Linguistische Berichte 234, pp. 227–254.
- ^ Herrick, E. M. (1994), Of course a structural graphemics is possible! LACUS Forum 21, pp. 413–424.
- ^ The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language, second edition, Cambridge University Press, 1997, p. 196
- ^ Zeman, Dan. "Czech Alphabet, Code Page, Keyboard, and Sorting Order". Old-site.clsp.jhu.edu. Archived from the original on 15 April 2012. Retrieved 31 March 2012.