Drawing on the everyday experience of collaborative design, and using ordinary language, I examine the nature of design practices and rules, how they come about, and how we use them. I offer some arguments to suggest that our conventional ways of thinking about rules are wrong. I conclude by arguing that the practice of designing and doing…

Describes general changes in sentence length, typical clause and modifier patterns, connectedness and structural explicitness over the last 400 years. Finds that the printed sentence has become shorter, the flow of information more direct, and the connections between nominalizations more implicit. Suggests that the printed sentence will continue…

This study analyzes more than 1,500 expressions or orthographic conventions adopted by advertisers for many consumer products that depart significantly from ordinary standards of correctness. (HOD)

Describes the fundamentals of Japanese braille and outlines the spacing rules now in general use. Points out the relevance of Japanese braille for the computer treatment of the Japanese language. (FL)

Describes some of the major structural features of the modern Japanese written language as they are manifested at the level of graphology. (FL)

Summarizes changes in the Japanese script from 1900 onwards, emphasizing those made after World War II in an effort to simplify the script. (FL)

Discusses the types of overlapping speech, a common characteristic of speech that any annotation system must deal with. Critiques two types of current systems for marking overlaps. Describes software developed by the authors that not only accurately marks the boundaries of overlaps but presents them to the user in a readable format. (SR)

Examines societies in which varieties and degrees of literacy are possible or ordinary, such as Japan and Korea. Finds that these societies have separate but functionally interrelated writing systems, used for communicatively disparate purposes, differential mastery of which, consequently, has social and economic repercussions. Finds that…

Offers an application of Mikhail Bakhtin's heteroglossia model, describing literature from a diversified point of view. Analyzes two examples to show nevertheless that Bakhtin unilaterally celebrates "stereo" qualities of language blending, and leaves no room for "mono" texts, which use polyglot devices as borders much more…

Examines how, under Western influence, punctuation was adopted in Japanese texts in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. (FL)

Discusses commercial bilingualism in Quebec. Deals with Canada's two official languages and classifies their contact with each other in the world of corporate or brand identity. Discusses what these languages must accomplish in the business world and the new perceptions resulting from their contact. Submits a theory of contact between three…

Describes an alphabetic process for cuing readers to speak the three dimensions of sound: fundamental frequency, duration, and intensity. (RB)

Examines colloquial contractions (spelling variants such as "kinda" and "hafta") against a background of other variations in the English writing system with respect to their morphological identity, characteristic spelling patterns, and significance in print. Divides variants into those that are independent of speech variation…

Traces the development of the use of the hyphen in printing through the examination of incunabula and reproduction of manuscripts and incunabular printing. (VJ)

Discusses bilingualism in written cuneiform texts from ancient Babylonia and Sumeria. Describes the development of formats and techniques that enabled two or more languages on a single document to coexist harmoniously and productively. (SR)