The functions and toposyntax of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. Exploring the iconicity and spatiality of pictorial graphemes

The goal of this paper is to provide a semiotically-informed description of the functions and syntax of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. Section 1 provides background information about the hieroglyphic writing system. The variety of functions fulfilled by its graphemes is discussed in Section 2, with a special attention to the relationships between graphemic and visual signs. In the next sections, the principles that underlie the syntagmatic organization of the hieroglyphs in monumental inscriptions are investigated, which includes both the spatial arrangements of the signs within a line (Section 3), and the orientations of the texts (Section 4). Based on this semiotic account, practical suggestions regarding the encoding of hieroglyphs in Unicode are made (Section 5).