Functional ideographies are composite semiotic systems

Abstract

All sufficiently large functional notations (ideographic or otherwise) are composites of discrete, structured elements (e.g., phonemes, morphemes, numerals). We must consider not only the modality but also the structure of the existing, workable ideographic/semasiographic systems we know (e.g., musical and numerical notation) to establish the cognitive limitations militating against humans memorizing and standardizing domain-general ideographies that would parallel written language.