Abstract
In the enlightening article written by Thompson (1977), he perceived that our economy has reached another saturation point in the information age. A potential quantum jump in economic evolution that can bring us to a much higher levels of wealth creation is available. However, this potential is inhibited by a fundamental linguistic constraint. He suggests that a possible solution to the constraint is the creation of a global ideographic writing system. In this paper, we will discuss the problems created by the language divide, analyze the differences, costs and benefits of the phonetic and logographic writing systems, and then we suggest a framework with examples for the development of natural logographs in order to tap the potential huge benefits provided by the information and communication technology.
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
Until recently, the author has limited knowledge on linguistic theories. I have to emphasize that the following discussions about the Chinese characters are abstracted from the work of Ping Chen (1996).
- 3.
According to Thompsons (1983) argument, it is said that the right hemisphere of the brain is involved in the processing to images and, presumably, also iconic symbols. This hemisphere, in addition to its graphic role, also is usually the one involved in creative and intuitive activities. Perhaps giving the right hemisphere of our brains a proper linguistic means might increase our level of creativity.
- 4.
Under a phonographic environment, apart from the market speech, all speeches will become marginal in the long-run if the market power among speech communities remain unchanged.
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Mo, P.H. (2009). Language-divides and Global Inequalities. In: Ordóñez de Pablos, P., Lytras, M. (eds) The China Information Technology Handbook. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-77743-6_15
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