APTER XVII.

Speech Defined--The True Nature of Speech--The Use of
Speech--The Limitations of Speech.

[Sidenote: SPEECH DEFINED]

What is speech? I shall endeavour to define it in such terms as will
relieve it of ambiguity, and deal with it as a known quantity in the
problems of mental commerce. Speech is that form of materialised thought
which is confined to oral sounds, when they are designed to convey a
definite idea from mind to mind. It is, therefore, only one mode of
expressing thought, and to come within the limits of speech, the sounds
must be voluntary, have fixed values, and be intended to suggest to
another mind a certain idea, or group of ideas, more or less complex.
The idea is one factor, and sound the other, and the two conjointly
constitute speech. The empty sounds alone, however modulated, having no
integral value, cannot be speech, nor can the concept unexpressed be
speech. Separately, the one would be noise, and the other would be
thought; and they only become speech when the thought is expressed in
oral sounds. Sounds which only express emotion are not speech, as
emotion is not thought, although it is frequently attended by thought,
and is a cause of which thought is the effect. Music expresses emotion
by means of sounds, but they are not speech; and even though the sounds
which express them may impart a like emotion to the hearer, they are not
speech. The sounds which express crying, sighing, or laughter, may
indeed be a faint suggestion of speech, since we infer from them the
state of the mind attending the emotions which produce them, yet they
are not truly speech. To be regarded as speech, the expression must be
preceded by consciousness, and the desire to make known to another the
sensation by which the expression is actuated. As the impulse can only
come from within, it appears that emotion is one source from which
thought is evolved, and speech is the natural issue of thought. Desire
gives rise to a class of thoughts having reference to the sensations
which produce them, and such thoughts find expression in such sounds as
may suggest supplying the want. As the wants of man have increased with
his changing modes of life and thought, his speech has drawn upon the
resources of sound to meet those increased demands for expression. It
appears only reasonable to me that thought must precede in point of time
and order any expression of thought, for thought is the motive of
expression, and