‘Wordwise’ is the homepage of Ian Bruce, resident of Sydney, Australia.
At this site I am putting together articles and resources on the English language, (spoken and written), and the effects that learning to read and write has on our perceptions, especially of language.
Currently I have one hard-copy book for sale, Organic Language, which presents a series of phonetic drawings of common English words as an empirical demonstration of how the perception of the vibration of vocal sound in the human body has influenced the evolution of English, such that the sounds of words tend to match and express their meanings.
This perception is unconscious in most adults, but children and some dyslexic adults respond immediately to the way the drawings correspond to their personal experience of speech sound.
Human spoken language is a great wonder of evolution, but our understanding of it is limited. 'Words' (and the structures of grammar), are themselves metaphors*1*, images constructed over evolutionary time to improve our chances of survival. Language is in effect, a lens through which we view, interpret and describe reality.
But the lens has biases, which we can't see or understand. Thus it is easy to talk about events, places and times—survival skills; more difficult to express personal feelings and describe complex situations; impossible to adequately express transcendental concepts that go beyond space and time. (See Language Logic.)
I have used the phrase 'Behind the Blackboard' because we must go beyond the imagery presented to us on the blackboard of life if we are to understand the forces that shape our thoughts and attitudes. (See Hoffman's iconism.)
This site is a 'work in progress': many short essays on topics of interest. I have put up a few reference pages:
(All designed to be referenced from other articles.)
I ultimately aim to construct 'pathways' through the collection that define projects to improve the conventions of printing and digital document design.
Ian Bruce
Sydney, March 2024
Footnotes
1. Nietzsche, Friedrich 1989 (1874), ‘Lecture Notes on Rhetoric’, Carole Blair’s translation in Friedrich Nietzsche on Rhetoric and Language, Sander L. Gilman ed., Oxford University Press, New York.
p. 23 ‘all words are tropes, in themselves, and from the beginning.’
All pages have a header image and a menu bar with buttons that link to the rest of the site.
There are 3 basic page types:
Directory pages: They start with a 'Contents box', that lists the items on the page. Each item is a hyperlink to a brief introduction (further down the page) and a link to a destination page or a further directory page. Examples: 'Articles' page; 'Books I am Reading' page
Destination pages: A destination page has self-contained content. As well as the menu bar links, it may contain links that expand various meanings, or interconnect a series or train of thought, but the page is basically stand-alone. Examples: 'Acoustic Hearing'; 'The Kybalion'
