Unit 3 Mass Communication and Society Quiz

All modern civilizations would collapse if citizens lost ability to

read and write

Early texts contain what

numeric concepts and pictographs that depict types of goods

Early Sumerian writing was a supplement to what

numeric tokens, to record economic transactions

Writing and token use overlapped what

At least a century

first written sentences desrcibed movement of grains store at temples

“take in” “give out”

Early texts were exclusively what

economic processes

larger temples established what

tablet houses where students were taught how to write

For the first few centuries

writing was only for temple centered economic activity

The writing sagas began when

three hundred years after the Sumerians had begun to write sentences

writing emerged among the Egyptians for

palace-centered activity

two basic types of writing are developed

pictographic and phonetic

most ancient writings are based on what

pictographs

pictographs depict objects (shapes)

indirectly referenced discourse

what are the techniques to make pictographs more isomorphic with spoken language

1) pictographic characters that referenced sound later developed

2) composite characters were developed

3) homophony

Early pictographs

easily recognizable configurations

matured pictographs

stylish, could only be recognized by the literates

what made pictographs more adequately transform speech, but pictographic writing became less and less accessible

elaborations

distinctions between literates and illiterates

a major chasm

Calligraphy flourished

writing and art amalamated

Refinement of writing: market context

making writing easier and useful

characters created for syllables, syllabic language developed (mesopotamia)

market context

mesopotamia

palace context

large number of characters were devleoped writing was only for state elites for admistering state affairs (Egypt, China)

Sacredness

China, Eygpt, and Maya endowed writing with sacredness

what is an instrument to maintain social order

writing

information

pictographs endured longer

individuals

less memorization on the writer

oral gathering

highly responsive, dramatic, exciting, joyful performances and celebrations

literate gathering

more orderly, less evocative, ritualistic reading of sacred texts

Goddesses accompanied by gods was replaced by what

Gods accompanied by Goddesses as writing replaced orality

Pictographic literate

exercised hegemony

pictographic literates have more control of administrative information over

oral specialists and phonetic literates

Phoenicians learned what

Egyptians pictographs and used them to reference phonemes of their spoken language

How many phonetic characters to transform spoken discourse into writing

It is easy: 25-35

Once you acquire phonetic characters, hypothetically possible to transform speech into writing

early phonetic writing

varied spelling

When was the first grammar in Western Europe written?

1492, forty years after print entered Europe

Pictograph

Writing for state record keeping (China, Egypt)

Phonetic writing

matured in market places (phonetician and greek) transforming orality into writing

augustus summoned a reader not

reach for a book

until after the invention of printing

nearly all Europeans acquired the content of the bible by listening to a literate priest

oral

more indispensable

phonetic writing

promoted sharing info difficult to maintain monopoly

pictographic: dicotomized citizenry

literates vs illiterates enhanced monopoly of knowledge

• invited totalitarian states

Judicial procedures

oral- public, fluid, emotional, varied

constructive commitment: oral

evocative transactions

spoken word

inconvertible realities of body experience

written word

substanceless scratching

firm commitment

shake hands

literate

signing contract

firm commitment

put it in writing

writing especially phonetic depresses what

evocative communication favors referential info

utilitarian =

sound

writer and reader could detect

internal inconsistencies

writing and readers allow for analytical standpoint ;

listening invites involvement

readers pay attention to

content

listeners pay attention to

performers

rationality replace emotionality

as the source of knowledge

written languages especially phonetic facilitate

formation of abstract concepts

as Greek intellectuals became literate

they pushed for greater abstraction

logic emerged when

intellectuals began to compose prosaic narrative

writing

knowledge exists independent of human action

oral history

little chronological depth and duration not precise or specific

history began

writing and calendar

writing history

extended chronologies and duration, precise and specific

palace centered states

literates (attached to temples and palaces)

ancient history

equate beginning of order with foundation of the nation

ancient Egyptian history

before founding of Egypt all was chaos

Pictographic states: cyclical past

every present and future is a recurrence of the past

If celestials events were cyclical

so were human affairs

Past is regarded as a preferred state of being

future is closed

Presumed nature and human society existed in

steady state

phonetic states

linear past

present is preferable to the past

future is open

written info

written and read in solitude

written history

past became more precise, but less interesting

Non-literates

Presume present condition prevailed in the past

non-literates presumed present condition:

prevailed in the past

oral naratives

the past known by nearly all

literate histories

haves vs have not (chasm greater than in orality)

info is dispensed at public ceremonies

difficult to avoid

written info

one needs to seek out