FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166  
167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188   >>  
amped character to the Language itself; and would be wanting in that profusion of synonymes which gives an artistic and life-like character to the lingual growths of the past. Both of these objections arise, as we shall hereafter see, from an erroneous impression of the nature of Language based on Analogy, coupled with a misconception of the real character and constituents of existing Languages. It is the purpose of the present papers to correct these false notions. In order to do so--and, what is essential to this, to present a clear exposition of the true character of the Language under consideration, and of its relations to the Lingual Structures of the past and present--it is necessary to give a preliminary examination to the fundamental question of the Origin of Speech. By means of this examination we shall come to understand that the existence and general use of a Universal Language with the elements of which Nature has herself furnished us, would not involve the abrupt or total abandonment of the Tongues now commonly employed; but, on the contrary, while preserving all that is substantially valuable in each, would enable us to acquire a knowledge of them with a facility which Comparative Philology, as now developed, lays no claim to impart. How, then, did Language originate? In setting out to answer this question, Professor Max Mueller says, in his _Lectures on the Science of Language_:[A] [Footnote A: Lectures on the Science of Language, delivered at the Royal Institution of Great Britain, in April, May, and June, 1861, by Max Mueller, M. A. From the second London edition, revised. New York: Charles Scribner, 124 Grand street. 1862.] 'If we were asked the riddle how images of the eye and all the sensations of our senses could be represented by sounds, nay, could be so embodied in sounds as to express thought and to excite thought, we should probably give it up as the question of a madman, who, mixing up the most heterogeneous subjects, attempted to change color and sound into thought. Yet this is the riddle we have now to solve. 'It is quite clear that we have no means of solving the problem of the origin of language _historically_, or of explaining it as a matter of fact which happened once in a certain locality and at a certain time. History does not begin till long after mankind had acquired the power of language, and even the most ancient
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166  
167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188   >>  



Top keywords:
Language
 

character

 

question

 

thought

 

present

 
Mueller
 
language
 

Science

 
Lectures
 

examination


sounds

 

riddle

 
images
 

street

 
revised
 

Britain

 
Institution
 
Footnote
 

Charles

 

Scribner


delivered

 

London

 

edition

 

mixing

 

happened

 

locality

 

matter

 

problem

 

origin

 

historically


explaining

 
History
 

acquired

 

ancient

 

mankind

 
solving
 

excite

 
madman
 

express

 
embodied

senses
 

represented

 
Professor
 
change
 

heterogeneous

 

subjects

 
attempted
 

sensations

 
correct
 

notions