C. Temple in London in 1993 described a theory of writing involving two routes or pathways by which we can transcribe a meaning in our minds into words on paper.
One route, the "whole word” route, involves a link in the brain between a meaning, and the storehouse of words (patterns of letters). So if a person had the idea 'cat' in his mind he could extract the letter-pattern 'cat' and then write it on the paper.
The other route, the "sound-of-the-letters” route, works by associating a meaning with a word-sound. The word-sound is then broken up into segments, and the spelling of the word obtained by transcribing the sound of each segment into the relevant letters.
Evidence supporting this two-pathway model of writing also comes from
brain-damaged patients. In this case the ailment is called "disgraphia"
(inability to write). Patients who retain parts of the "sound-of-the-letters"
pathway would make errors like spelling 'flud' instead of 'flood'; while
patients who retain part of the "whole word" pathway are unable to spell
nonsense words like 'grun'.
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