Lego Blocks and the Written Language

Lego Blocks and the Written Language An Essay by Robert Guzman Putting language together in print is a lot like building things with Lego blocks. You connect and stack these multi-colored plastic tiles and with a little luck you can build almost anything.... More

Lego Blocks and the Written Language An Essay by Robert Guzman Putting language together in print is a lot like building things with Lego blocks. You connect and stack these multi-colored plastic tiles and with a little luck you can build almost anything. You match colors and create shapes thatform things, differentthings. While on a recent visit to central Florida my daughter Jenny and I visited the Lego Store in Down Town Disney at Orlando. This store is dedicated to all things Lego. There are hundreds of kits for building all sorts of neat things with these versatile blocks. It is amazing what you can build with Legos. There was a large model of the Space Shuttle. There were historical buildings like the Empire State Building, the Eiffel Tower and the London Bridge. There were medieval castles and many other structures, all built with the same littleplastic tiles. Well, written language works the same way. You begin with arbitrary symbols called letters. With letters you Less