Oral and Written

Abstract

Based on the premise that it is not possible to analyze the relation between oral and written language by concentrating only on the linguistic code, this essay considers the totality of discursive production as a social practice and analyzes the contexts of production, the uses and forms of oral and written transmission in daily life. To this end a double distinction is proposed between: (a) orality and literacy as social practices, and (b) speech and writing as modes of use. The first distinction is based on the observation of sociocommunicative reality and the second, on linguistic facts. Several current theoretical tendencies are examined. All perspectives that polarize the relation between oral and written language are rejected, while a position focusing on the multifactorial relati­on between the two practices within a continuum of uses and genres that rejects intrin­sic properties, both negative and positive, of these practices, is adopted.