The German Linguistic Studies Series is a comprehensive and outstanding forum in its field. It has borne the name of its subject in its title since the foundation of the series in the eighth decade of the last century.
The series is comprehensive in the broad spectrum of topics covered (language levels, varieties, communication forms, epochs) in the range of research perspectives (theoretical and empirical studies, fundamental research and applications, interdisciplinarity with psychology, the social sciences etc.) and methodologies (the sole criterion is quality), in the rhythm of research (trends are perceived and also set, achievements are secured) and in the forms of presentation (monographs, textbooks, collected volumes, dictionaries).
Professorial theses, outstanding doctoral theses, pioneering research findings from wider contexts, but also the surprising ‛stroke of genius’ set the standards for inclusion in the series.

Der Band vereint Beiträge zu neueren Entwicklungen in der Schrifttheorie, vor allem aus linguistischer, philosophischer, medientheoretischer und sprachdidaktischer Perspektive. Dabei geht es zum einen um die Frage, mit welchen Methoden und Kategorien Schrift und Schreiben analysiert werden können und worin sich die geschriebene Sprache medial von der gesprochenen unterscheidet. Zum anderen werden Einflüsse des Mediums Alphabetschrift auf die historische Entwicklung dieser Disziplinen nachgezeichnet und verschiedene Schrifttypen im Verhältnis zueinander beschrieben. Ausgangspunkt für die Beiträge waren die schrifttheoretischen Arbeiten Christian Stetters, insbesondere seine Thesen, dass die Alphabetschrift nicht als eine Art Lautschrift zu begreifen sei, und dass die spezifischen Eigenschaften dieses Schrifttyps zur Genese formaler Sprachbetrachtung in Sprachwissenschaft und Philosophie entscheidend beigetragen haben. In den Beiträgen des Bandes werden Schwierigkeiten der Orthographie-Reform ebenso reflektiert wie didaktische Kontroversen zum Schriftspracherwerb, die Pragmatik des Schreibens ebenso wie die Ästhetik unterschiedlicher Schriftarten.

The volume brings together papers on new developments in the theory of writing systems, above all from the perspectives of linguistics, philosophy, media theory and language education. Firstly there is the question of the methods and categories used for analysing writing, and how written language as a medium is different from spoken language. Secondly, the influences of alphabetic scripts on the historical development of these disciplines are traced, and various types of writing system are described in relation to each other. The starting point for the contributors was Christian Stetter's work on the theory of written language, especially his theses that alphabetic script is not to be seen as a kind of phonetic script and that the specific characteristics of this writing system have had a decisive influence on the genesis of formal language reflection in linguistics and philosophy. The papers in the volume reflect on the difficulties of spelling reform and on didactic controversies around the acquisition of written language, on the pragmatics of writing and on the aesthetics of various types of script.