title: Writing systems: not optimal, but good enough.
abstract: Languages and writing systems result from satisfying multiple constraints related to learning, comprehension, production, and their biological bases. Orthographies are not optimal because these constraints often conflict, with further deviations due to accidents of history and geography. Things tend to even out because writing systems and the languages they represent exhibit systematic trade-offs between orthographic depth and morphological complexity.
authors.affiliation: Psychology Department, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA. seidenberg@wisc.edu
authors.forename: Mark S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Seidenberg
mesh_terms: D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008959:Models, Neurological; D011932:Reading; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*; D012660:Semantics