Spoken and Written Language

Language, naturally, constitutes a substantial part of any person’s theory of the world. It obviously plays a central role in reading. The present chapter is concerned with language from a number of perspectives, including the relationships between the sounds of speech and their meaning, between the printed marks of written language and their meaning, between productive aspects of language (talking and writing) and receptive aspects (listening and reading), and between spoken and written language. The chapter also refers briefly to grammar and to other conventions of language.