What you see is what you get?: challenging the primacy of the visual in writing research

• Spitzmüller, Jürgen ^[1]
  1. [1] Department of Linguistics
• Localización: Sociolinguistica: Internationales Jahrbuch für Europäische Soziolinguistik=International Yearbook of European Sociolinguistics=Annuaire International de la Sociolinguistique Européenne, ISSN 0933-1883, Vol. 39, Nº. 2, 2025 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Multilingual, multilectal, and multiscriptal writing), págs. 305-326
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • This paper draws attention to a form of writing and reading that is sorely neglected and sidelined both in writing research and society, despite its widespread use and importance, viz. braille. I will argue that braille does not fit well with some core assumptions (ideologies) of writing, such as the assumption that writing is ‘visual communication’, and that this might be the reason why it has been so often dismissed as a ‘special case’, an ‘auxiliary’ or a ‘secondary notation system’, rather than having been accepted and celebrated as what it is: a highly fascinating (and multiply variable) script in its own right. The paper approaches braille from a script-theoretical and a sociolinguistic perspective. It summarises its main principles and features and critically discusses both the widespread disregard of the script and the problematic classification in the few works that touch upon it. Furthermore, potential (hitherto mostly unexplored) sociolinguistic approaches to braille (usage) – its social meaning, indexicality, and ideologies related to it – are discussed. The main aim of the paper is to elaborate why this form of writing, if taken seriously, not only fundamentally challenges some widespread notions of graphic communication, but also the societal, and sociolinguistic, apotheosis of the visual.