Advances in Psychological Science
This paper introduces the Dongba script of the Naxi ethnic minority in China, a unique writing system combining pictographic, ideographic, and phonetic elements, and reviews the ongoing scholarly debate over its linguistic nature—whether it should be classified as a pictographic or logographic (ideo-phonetic) script. The authors summarize existing cognitive studies on Dongba script processing, including character recognition, form-sound-meaning activation, and whole- versus part-based processing, comparing findings with research on alphabetic and Chinese logographic scripts. They argue that because Dongba script occupies a transitional position in script evolution—resembling primitive picture-writing yet sharing structural principles with Chinese characters—it offers a valuable test case for resolving unresolved theoretical debates in psycholinguistics. The paper concludes by outlining future research directions: using Dongba script to address major theoretical issues in language cognition, providing empirical evidence for script evolution laws, and establishing minority-language cognition research as an indispensable component of psycholinguistic science.
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