Linguistics and Writing: the Visuo-Graphic Zone

Abstract

When we write, we resort to a series of graphic resources that permit us to indicate to our interlocutor how to interpret what we are saying. Such resources, which organize and shape the written text as we know it today, constitute a zone of the system of writing that we call the visuo-graphic zone. In order to study its composition and nature, it is necessary to review critically beforehand the different forms in which linguistics has conceptualized writing. In effect, we can only define a perspective to mark the boundaries of our object, if we previously define what kind of relationship establishes writing with language.