The disorders of speech.

  • Wyllie, John, 1914-
Date:
1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The disorders of speech. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

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    carried on among these words, which led to the destruction of the less strong, the less happy, the less fertile words, and ended in the triumph of one, as the recognised and proper name for every object in every language. He says, The fact that every word is originally a predicate, that names, though signs of individual conceptions, are all without exception derived from general ideas, is one of the most important discoveries in the Science of Language. He is strongly opposed to the doctrine of those who would trace the origin of language to natural interjections uttered under emotion, and to the imitation of natural sounds such as the cries of animals. Though recognising the existence of a few words of onomatopoietic origin in all languages, he thinks these neither numerous nor important. He holds that the roots must be regarded as ultimate facts in philology. The only explanation of their origin that he offers is a somewhat mystic one. He says, All that we have a right to assert is that language begins with roots, and that these roots are neither more nor less than phonetic types or typical sounds. What lies beyond them is no longer, or, if we speak historically, is not yet language, however interesting it may be for psychological researches. But whatever exists in real language is the upshot of these roots. Words are various impres- sions taken from these phonetic moulds. In indicating how these phonetic types may have first displayed themselves, he says, If we must look for analogies, however imperfect, they have been pointed out by others. There is a law, it has been said, which runs through nearly the whole of nature, that everything which is struck rings. Each substance has its peculiar ring; we can tell the more or less perfect structure of metals by their vibrations, by the answer which they give. Gold rings differently from tin, wood rings differently from stone, and different sounds are produced according to the nature of each percussion. It is the same, we are told, with man, the most highly organized of Nature's works. Man responds. Man rings. Man in his primitive and perfect state was not only endowed like the brute with the power of expressing his sensations by interjections, and his perceptions by onomatopoeia. He possessed likewise the faculty of giving more articulate expression to the general conceptions of his mind. That faculty was not of his own making. It was an instinct, an instinct of the mind as irresistible as any other instinct. Man loses his