语言与文风2017languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu
读写汉字的奇妙之处
The miracle of reading and writing Chinese characters
导读
这篇 Language Log 文章从认知角度谈读写汉字这一“奇迹”，评论区则把话题延伸到波斯文、日文与英文的书写经验。讨论的核心是：我们阅读时究竟以字母、笔画还是词块为单位，以及书写到底依赖视觉想象还是肌肉记忆。对写作者而言，它提醒我们书写工具与熟练度会反过来塑造我们组织语言和接收信息的方式。
可以直接用的写作要点
- 01
读者是按意群或“笔画块”整块扫读的，写作时要照顾这种块状接收的节奏，别把句子切得太碎、难以成块。
- 02
书写是传播工具，不等同于思维本身；先想清楚再落笔，别把写下来的形式误当成想法。
- 03
对字词的熟悉度决定你能否“整体”感知它，多读多写才能让词句在下笔时自然成形。
- 04
写作很大程度上是练出来的肌肉记忆，光在脑子里想不够，必须反复动笔。
HN 评论精选
不同书写系统训练出不同的阅读单位——波斯读者按“笔触”整块扫读，因此读得更快。
麦圭尔引述 Brian Spooner 的评论：在伊朗，他发现波斯人读波斯文比他自己读英文快得多。原因在于，识字的波斯人（以及乌尔都语写作者）并不以单个字母为单位去思考、观看和行动，而是以“笔触”为单位——一个笔触可能包含一到四个甚至更多字母；字母因位置不同写法不同，笔触也因前后文不同而变化。读者读的是笔触（数量极多）而非字母，所以扫读更快。英文读者也倾向于按词扫读而非按字母，但波斯读者在这方面更高效。书写方式、与书写的关系、实践方式和结果都与我们不同，他还说“关于这点还有很多可说，但这个评论就说这么多”。
mcguire查看英文原文
Brian Spooner's comment on the article is interesting, too: "...In Iran I was always fascinated and puzzled by seeing Persians read Persian much faster than I could read English. [...] Our answer was that literate Persians (and Urdu-writers) think, see and act much less in terms of individual letters (than we do, and than we are taught to do as we learn to read and write). They see and write pen-strokes, each of which may contain 1, 2, three or even four letters, possibly (though rarely) more. The letters are written differently according to where they come in the pen-stroke and the pen-strokes are written differently according to what comes before or after them. Readers read pen-strokes (the number of which is very large), not letters. They read faster because they are scanning by series of pen-stokes. We also tend to read English by scanning words rather than reading letters, but the Persian reader is much more efficient and faster at then. The general approach and relationship to writing is different from ours. Its practice is different. And its result is different. There is much more to be said about this. But enough for this comment." I don't know anything about Persian, but I now feel the need to go learn more.
书写只是传播工具，不应与语言思维混为一谈。
书写是一门为在时间与空间上传播信息而发明的技术，是人类最好的发明之一，无论字母表、音节文字还是表意文字都是如此。但不该把书写与言语的思维模式、语言产生和处理的机制混为一谈。中文和英文（或任何语言）在这方面没有不同。让你拼写“bee”时，你会去想象这个词的形状吗？大概不会。书写行为与语言过程是完全分开的。
Xophmeister查看英文原文
Writing is a technology invented to help practically disseminate information over time and space. It's a good invention -- arguably one of our best -- regardless of the minutiae of alphabets vs. syllabaries vs. ideographs, etc. However, one shouldn't confound it with the thought patterns of speech and the mechanisms required to produce and process language. Chinese is no different to English (or any other language) in that respect. Do you visualise the shape of the word "bee" when asked to think how to spell it? I doubt it. The act of writing is completely removed from the linguistic process.
熟悉度决定能否“整体”想象文字——熟悉的字像画，生字则难；母语者把字当工具，反而未必能凭空想象。
这对我来说很奇怪，现在我得去问我的日本朋友同样的问题。我能很好地想象我知道的汉字，而我并不流利。我说日语而非中文，但我觉得这对想象汉字没影响，因为大多数字是一样的。我能想象「雑」（来自「複雑」），因为熟悉；我很难想象「爆」，因为刚学、不熟。我本以为中日母语者想象汉字毫无困难，所以听说他们也会卡住很有趣。读了 Xophmeister 的回复后觉得有道理：对我来说汉字更像艺术，像想象一幅熟悉的画；对母语者，汉字更接近书写工具，就像英文对我一样。对英文，我只能想象八九个字母左右的词；试着想象 “adenohypophysis” 很难。所以可以想象，任何不简单的汉字对母语者都难想象。
Nadya查看英文原文
This is strange for me - and now I need to ask my Japanese acquaintances the same questions! I'm able to visualize the Chinese characters I know just fine, and I'm by no means fluent. I speak Japanese instead of Chinese, but I don't think that would make a difference when visualizing the characters since most of them are one in the same. I can visualize「雑」(from: 複雑) because of my familiarity. I struggle with 「爆」, a character I just recently learned, because I am not familiar with it. I would have thought that natives of Chinese or Japanese would have no difficulties with visualizing the characters! So it is interesting for me to hear anecdata that they struggle with it. E: Reading Xophmeister's reply it actually makes sense to me. For myself, Chinese characters are much more artistic and it is like visualizing a familiar painting or drawing. For a native, they are closer to a tool used for writing, like how English is for myself. For English, I can only visualize words with eight or nine characters or so. It's a weird practice to try and visualize the word "adenohypophysis" - it is difficult. So I can imagine any non-trivial Chinese character would be difficult to visualize for native speakers. E2: Replaced "Kanji" with "Chinese characters" in a few places it slipped through.
书写主要靠肌肉/程序记忆，而非视觉想象。
书写主要是运动技能，不是视觉技能。你不需要想象键盘才能盲打。肌肉记忆是一种程序记忆，与任何想象能力都截然不同。
Sharlin查看英文原文
Writing is primarily a motor skill, not a visual one. You don't need to visualize a keyboard to be able to touch-type, either. Muscle memory is a form of procedural memory very much distinct from any visualization ability.
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