I have considered the alphabet to be the result of visual refinement. However, in its thousands of years of history, although it underwent changes, Chinese did not become an alphabet. Characters <1> they remain complex during thousands of years of development. The major simplification process had not occurred until the last century. The number of characters was increasing. The question is: why did the simplification come so late? What kept Chinese characters complex for thousands of years? Was the readability principle having no effect on the Chinese system? Should. There should be something to prevent Chinese from becoming an alphabet. Let’s work out the concept of readability.

Proof

The eyes pick up the visual information in the text. Suitable for reading denotes apt to be taken by the eyes. The legible writing must conform to the characteristics of the vision. One of the characteristics of vision is horizontal-vertical asymmetry. Adapted to the natural environment, our eyes have a horizontal shape and alignment. We see wider horizontally than vertically. When we look ahead, we detect information better on both sides than up / down. The characteristics of the eyes (vision) of reading in different directions correlate with the characteristics of writing in those directions. The essential difference of the horizontal and vertical readings has to do with the asymmetry between the horizontal and vertical visual spans, which has anatomical and neuroscientific evidence. The horizontal line of sight is greater than the vertical line of sight, as mentioned in [1] among others. It is consistent with the anatomy of the macula (retina), which is oval in shape with a long horizontal axis. [2] [3].

We can see that the alphabetic system and Chinese have a directional characteristic. Alphabet systems are predominantly written horizontally, while Chinese is traditionally written vertically. The alphabetical sequence is lengthened while the Chinese characters are enclosed. This could be due to the asymmetry of the horizontal-vertical visual segment. The horizontal lengthening may have led to the development of the alphabet while locking the results in complexity. The writing direction and the complexity of the symbols can be correlated. Let’s use the feature of vision to explain how symbols grow in horizontal / vertical directions.

The best single symbol shape might be an oval similar to the macula. It would be greater width than height. When a sequence of symbols is read and one of the symbols is pinned, the eyes also pick up information from the symbols adjacent to the pinned symbol. Therefore, the power of vision is shared by the various contiguous symbols. If the visual range is greater, the symbols in and around the fixture will be simplified further. Therefore, horizontally arranged symbols can be further simplified.

The representation of knowledge is achieved through the growth of the text. With respect to a symbol, the text grows in two ways: internal growth and external growth. Through internal growth, a symbol becomes more complex. Outgrowth is a sequential combination of symbols into larger linguistic units. Reading involves moving your visual fixation from one symbol to another. When reading a sequence of symbols, the symbols next to the pinned are of interest. The external growth of the text occurs mainly in the forward direction, as the eyes struggle to assimilate it. There is competition between internal and external growth. When the reading direction is the same as the direction of the largest (horizontal) width of view, outgrowth is promoted. When the reading direction is the same as the direction of the smallest visual extent (vertical), internal growth is promoted.

When text is arranged horizontally, outgrowth further simplifies symbols as the horizontal visual breadth is extended further. The contextual effect causes the visual breadth to be extended later as people guess the meaning of lower acuity text. Rapid eye movement also contributes to simplification because less time is spent on each symbol. For example, to write from left to right, more symbols are read to the right than to the left. [4], probably more than the width of the right visual space. Horizontal writing has been successfully simplified, standardized, and systematized into a small number of letters – the alphabet.

When the symbols are arranged vertically, each symbol grows internally according to the largest horizontal visual space and then moves on to the next symbol. There is a conflict between the direction of the text and a stronger visual direction. The symbols are restricted in blocks, leading to a logographic system. Reading from top to bottom failed to simplify the Chinese characters. Rather, the characters were allowed to be more complex (the simple characters were also allowed to exist). The complexity limit is limited by recognition during reading. Although the characters failed to simplify, by using horizontal visual space, the amount of visual information read can be maximized while maintaining sufficient acuity. Although characters are read as units, internal details are needed to recognize a character and distinguish between characters. Characters are made up of smaller structural units, such as strokes and radicals, which are not as standardized as alphabets. There is also no standard order for combining them, since the visual breadth goes in any direction within a character frame. Not towards the alphabet, the Chinese characters evolved to their modern form that makes it easier to read. They are square in shape with components and rules to some extent standardized for their formation.

Observation

In today’s world there are two types of incompatible writing systems. One is the horizontal alphabet system. The other is the vertical logographic system. Representative of the first is the Latin alphabet. Representative of the latter is the Chinese system. Horizontality and verticality are responsible for these two types, respectively. Some non-logographic vertical systems, such as the Mongolian script and the Japanese syllabary, are intermediate systems influenced by these two types. Both types are suitable for reading, in their respective directions. One may think that written Chinese is primitive because it is poor at representing speech sounds. Here we point out that it is an advanced system in a top-down direction. With that direction, writing would never become an alphabet on its own. When horizontal writing meets vertical writing, the alphabetic system dominates the logographic system because the horizontal extension is more suitable for our eyes.

Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese coexist. Traditional Chinese must represent genuine Chinese, as the simplification of Chinese characters is due to foreign influence. The simplification of the Chinese characters was accompanied by a change in the direction of writing. The change of direction is consistent with and promotes simplification as well. Simplification and the shift from vertical to horizontal are, in fact, China’s departure from its essential nature. The internal structure of the character is less concerned. People are now used to reasoning based on two- or multi-character words rather than individual characters. There is a debate as to whether simplifying Chinese is beneficial. Simply put, since the Chinese system has become a horizontal system, its future should be further simplification.

Conclution

The concept of readability is elaborated. The readability of the text depends on the direction. The asymmetry of the horizontal-vertical visual span can be used to explain the simplicity of horizontally arranged alphabetic symbols and the complexity of vertically arranged Chinese characters.

The shape and direction of the symbol are two aspects of writing. The evolution of symbols depends on the direction. The direction of the writing changes to match the characteristic of the vision.

Note

<1> Please refer to traditional Chinese characters, unless otherwise noted.

Note

This article is an extension and complement of my other article “Visual evolution of writing systems towards the Latin alphabet: a hypothesis” and could be extended from paragraph 1, section 2 of that article.

References

[1] Insup Taylor, Mr. Martin Taylor. Writing and literacy in Chinese, Korean and Japanese. John Benjamins Publishing Co, 1995 Google Books, Web. November 9, 2011. Page 104.

[2] http://balyeatretinasurgery.com/AMD.html

[3] John Herbert Parsons. Introduction to the study of color vision. University Press, 1915. Google Books, Web. November 9, 2011. Page 13.

[4] Gordon E. Legge. Psychophysics of reading in normal and low vision, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2006. Google Books, Web. November 9, 2011. Page 71.