Ideographic Myth

from the book The Chinese Language, Fact and Fantasy by John DeFrancis. Ideographic Myth
I wouldn't say i agree with the argument, but i think some of it is valuably true. But i still think that the chinese language is to some extent logographic with some phonetic function. the problem is that all these languages have been around for so long and we learn them when we were very very young. so we can no longer differentiate the cognitive process of thinking of the sound and that of thinking of the idea, the two of which prob occur a split second apart from each other. since we cannot separate the processes, we don't have the experimental means to prove whether chinese writing gives us the sound or the idea frist, and thus came the argument. however, i think we should look at the writing on it's own right, i.e. what is the writing itself representing. i think ideas, but in a phonetic pattern, that is necessarily needed in simplification and convenience of usage purpose. it's an evolution over time maybe converging with the phonetic languages, but certainly the logic behind the chinese writing is innately different from that behind the western language.