An Overture for Experimental Graphetics

Abstract

If we assume that a spoken language and its written counterpart are essentially distinct entities, it turns out that the twentieth century linguistics has studied mismatching aspects of them (sounds and written language) and has paid little attention to the remaining aspects (writing and spoken language). In order to solve this incompatible situation, we need to establish the science of writing (graphetics) and that of spoken language. Based on this spirit, this paper argues that the Japan Experimental Linguistics Society should play an active role in establishing experimental graphetics and refer to Ikeda (2008) as an instance of such endeavor.