The Pragmatics of Typography

众所周知，人类之间的沟通是复杂的，这也许就是为什么一些通信技术不被用户所认识的原因。例如，书面通信，无论是公共标志，广告牌，书籍，说明书，甚至消费电子产品界面，都取决于有目的地部署字体和字体。每种情况下选择的字体或字体都有自己的含义，这些含义会影响所接收的信息，并通过这些共享的文化形式与读者产生共鸣，即使读者没有意识到。令人惊讶的是，考虑到字体的普遍性和重要性，社会生活的这一领域却很少有人研究。社会科学家主要从狭义的认知角度来研究字体，比如通过研究相对可读性。但是，需要进行更广泛的研究，以了解如何创造，选择和使用填充社会的许多不同的字体，以及它们最终如何建立和影响沟通。墨菲是加州大学欧文分校的人类学家，他将对各种印刷语言如何调解交流进行人种学和话语分析调查。该研究将侧重于排版设计和教育学;围绕公众沟通使用字体的决策;以及排版知识的策划和培养。数据将通过半结构化访谈、参与者观察、录像活动分析和档案研究在工作室、教室和档案馆收集，主要在旧金山弗朗西斯科、洛杉矶和纽约市。数据分析将包括从考古技术的创新使用，以检查印刷标本类别和使用的上下文之间的关系。这项研究的结果将阐明字体如何影响人们发送和接收的信息。从理论上讲，该研究扩展了对人类交流重要性的社会科学理解。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Communication among humans is known to be complex, which is perhaps why some technologies of communication go unrecognized by their users. For example, written communications, whether public signage, billboards, books, instruction manuals, or even consumer electronics interfaces, depend on the purposeful deployment of typefaces and fonts. The typeface or font chosen in each case carries its own meaning, which influences the message received and resonates with readers through these shared cultural forms, even if readers are unaware. Surprisingly, considering typeface's ubiquity and importance, this area of social life has been little studied. Social scientists have examined typeface primarily in narrow, cognitive terms, such as by studying relative readability. But much wider research is needed to understand how the many different typefaces that populate societies are created, selected, and used, and how they ultimately build and influence communication.Dr. Keith M. Murphy, an anthropologist at the University of California at Irvine, will undertake an ethnographic and discourse analytic investigation of how varieties of printed language mediate communication. The research will focus on typographic design and pedagogy; decision making around the use of typeface for public communication; and the curation and cultivation of typographic knowledge. Data will be collected through semi-structured interviews, participant observation, video-recorded activity analyses, and archival research, in studios, classrooms, and archives, primarily in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York City. Data analysis will include an innovative use of techniques from archaeology to examine relations between typographic specimen categories and contexts of use. Findings from this research will elucidate how typeface influences the messages people send and receive. Theoretically, the research expands upon social scientific understanding of the materiality of human communication.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.