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I will speak, therefore, of a graph: A Chinese metalanguage1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2008

Joseph R. Allen
Joseph R. Allen
Affiliation:
Department of Asian and Near Eastern Languages and Literatures, Washington University, Campus Box IIII, One Brookings Drive St. Louis, MO 63130–4899
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Abstract

This article describes the acquisition and use of a Chinese metalanguage with which ambiguous spoken words are graphically contextualized. The metalanguage is composed of strategies that range from the actual writing of the Chinese graph (character) to those where the graph is accommodated in a verbal presentation. The nature of the Chinese script and the cultural significance of the graphs have lent weight to this metalanguage such that it comments not only on the language in use but also on the users of the language and on the situation in which it is used. The article is accompanied by a number of anecdotal asides and graphic illustrations. (Chinese, metalanguage, script, graphic contextualization, signature, calligraphy)

Type
Articles
Information
Language in Society , Volume 21 , Issue 2 , June 1992 , pp. 189 - 206
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

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References

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