Conveying meaning in writing
Published in Writing Tips on 5/10/2009
from The Story of Writing: Alphabets, Hieroglyphs & Pictograms by Andrew Robinson, Thames and Hudson publishers.
The letters of the English alphabet are phonetic symbols, phonograms. Generally speaking, they are without meaning: meaning derives from their combination into words. But 'a' can also be a semantic symbol, a logogram, when it stands for the indefinite article next to a noun ( 'a dog', for example); and it can be encircled to make @, creating the meaning 'at the rate of', 'x/X' is still more ambidextrous. As a phonetic symbol, it can stand for z in 'xenophobia', ks in 'excel', gz in 'exist', kris in 'Xmas', cross in Xing, ten in 'Xth' (or dix in French Xe = 'dixieme'). As a semantic symbol, x/X has a wide range of meanings; some are listed here:- the concept '10', 'ten' in English, 'dix' in French, 'shi' in Chinese, etc.
- the 24th item in a sequence of 26 letters derived from the Latin alphabet
- An unknown quantity, as in x2 + 2x = 3 and Mr. X
- 'times', i.e. multiplied by, as in 3 x 5 = 15
- a negative command, e.g. a sign depicting a camera crossed out, meaning 'no photography'
- a wrong answer, as in examination paper
- pornographic, as in X-rated movies
- the location of an object, e.g. a buried treasure
- the signature of an illiterate
- a vote cast on a voting paper
- a kiss
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