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Part of the book series: Neuropsychology and Cognition ((NPCO,volume 17))

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the role of writing acquisition in the constitution of the “word” as a conceptual entity. Our hypothesis is that the pre-literate notion of “word” is dramatically changed through the acquisition of a writing system that uses empty spaces between strings of letters, giving by this procedure a new definition of “word” that, afterwards, the literate speaker will consider as “natural”.

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© 1999 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Ferreiro, E. (1999). Oral and Written Words. Are they the Same Units?. In: Nunes, T. (eds) Learning to Read: An Integrated View from Research and Practice. Neuropsychology and Cognition, vol 17. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-4826-9_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-4826-9_4

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-7923-5992-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-011-4826-9

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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