THE PLACE OF LOGORGAMS IN MODERN SEMIOGRAPHY FRENCH WRITING

Abstract

The article reveals the main concepts of graphic linguistics, the principles of writing: phonographic, based on the transmission of speech sounds, and semiographic, which captures the semantic units of language, where letter signs are ideograms, graphic units of the semiographic system of writing: morphograms, logograms. The spelling system of the French language is plurisystemic, which uses the variability of the presented principles to ensure the quality transmission of information, therefore it is a structural, universal and functional system of writing. Modern French orthography is characterized by the wide use of semiographs, which fix grammatical categories, specify meanings, and give words a special visual image. The work clearly distinguishes the related concepts of logogram and ideogram. A logogram is a letter sign of semiography that carries semantic information and aims to distinguish homophonic spellings in writing. An ideogram is an indivisible conditional sign of a linguopragmatic and communicative nature, which can be realized not only in the form of a letter sign, but also as an image, symbol, graphic sign.The appearance of logograms is associated with the dynamic development of the lexical structure of the French language in the XV–XVI centuries, in particular borrowings from classical and European languages. The widespread use of logograms caused the foundation of the differential spelling principle during the Renaissance (XVI century) and its rooting in the New French language (XVII–XVIII centuries). Among the first logogrammatic units that entered French graphics were the monograms à, â, ô, û, y, doubled graphic complexes ff, ll, nn, rr, etc., as well as the trigram ung.The presented article also systematizes the graphic inventory of logograms of the modern French language, which consists of 48 graphic complexes, among which two-letter orthograms with diacritical marks, doubled letters and orthograms for the transmission of nasal sounds prevail. The specified orthograms extend their differential features from phonogram to logorams, so they are polygraphems. The conducted analysis demonstrated the general tendency of the French orthographic system to increase semiographic spellings and entrench the differential principle of spelling.