1. Chapter 5 Print Language, Literate Culture

2. Written Language, textual culture
Historical perspective on how technology affected the relationship bet language & culture:
Invention of writing (3000 BC)
Oral tradition textual tradition
Chinese scribal culture/ passing wisdom & truths
Text’s meaning/ social prestige ‘literate education’
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Respect to textual authority was imp to early religious traditions/ study of sacred texts revelation / to recover the original truths passed orally By God, angels and prophets.
The absurdity of the quest of one ‘true’ meaning/ multiple meanings/ legal documents ‘re-interpreted’

3. Print & Power Institutional power ensuring cultural continuity
medieval times/ monks & scribes… gate keepers & interpreters of tradition against cultural change.
Print culture:
no need to hand copy
Religious authority decline
Translation of Bible meanings & truth accessible to all
Church monopoly replaced by secular power
Traditional academic practice imposed its own context of interpretation/ emphasized form over meaning/ interpretation should be independent of reader’s response/ ‘bad student’

4. Social Construction of Literacy
Recent types of literacies linked to various genres:
Literary literacy/ press/ instructional manuals/ scientific/ marketing/ novels & poems
To be literate to understand & manipulate social & cultural meanings of print language in thoughts, feelings and actions.
Children from different social
backgrounds different types of literacies.
(e.g. narrative style)

5. Text and Discourse
Written language can be looked at as either text (fixed and stable) or discourse (interactive and inferential)
Text:
A stretch of written language as the product of intention
has a fixed & stable relation to its context of culture
Discourse:
(A) via coherence
e.g. deictic “this” in poem/ either demonstrative ‘cohesive device’/ or discourse indicative ‘factor of coherence’
(B) via internal cohesion
e.g. Aspirin label considering ‘corporate culture’/ commercial & legal interests must be included when interpreting text/ coherent discourse
(C) Cultural coherence
e.g. ‘American independence’/ most difficult for foreign readers/ drawing on reader’s cultural knowledge

6. Literacy event, prior text, point of view
The interaction of the reader with the text within a social context.
Defined by (common social practices with written texts/ common ways of interpretation)
Includes situational & cultural dimensions
Situational context
Events
Audience
Purpose
Text’s register
Its key
Prior text
Point of view
Discourse
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7. Genre
Genre:
In general ( a class or category of art (or any other field) having a particular form, content, or technique. e.g, the genre of ‘epic poetry’)
A socially approved type of communicative event, either spoken or printed.
Dependent on specific context of situation or culture.
Related to text type & language choice/ e.g. ‘sermon’ register
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8. Summary