The course provides an overview of the world writing systems with a focus on their linguistic properties, evolutionary developments, and mental processing. The first half of the course will be devoted to developing a typology of writing systems and exploring distinct types of writing attested in human history. The second half will be devoted to the history of writing systems and their decipherment, psychological and neurological aspects of writing/reading, the creation and reform of writing systems, and ongoing technological innovations in the Digital Age.
About Young-mee Yu Cho
Young-mee Yu Cho is Associate Professor of Korean Language and Culture and author of Parameters of Consonantal Assimilation (1999) and coauthor of Integrated Korean (2000, 2001, 2010), the most popular Korean textbook series in the US. She served as President of the American Association of Teachers of Korean (www.aatk.org) for three years (2006-2009), and, as co-chair of the Korean National Standards Task Force, developed Standards for Korean Language Learning (2010, ACTFL). In addition, she co-organized the North American Workshop on Korean Literature (NAOKOL) with Professor Kyeong-Hee Choi of Chicago University between 2007-2010. Currently, she is working on her monograph, Korean Phonology and Morphology.