Classical literature; Language and languages -- Philosophy
remember that however far we carry back our analysis some ultimate
elements or roots will remain which can be no further analyzed. For
example; the word agathos was supposed by us to be a compound of
agastos and thoos, and probably thoos may be further resolvable. But if
we take a word of which no further resolution seems attainable, we may
fairly conclude that we have reached one of these original elements,
and the truth of such a word must be tested by some new method. Will
you help me in the search?
All names, whether primary or secondary, are intended to show the
nature of things; and the secondary, as I conceive, derive their
significance from the primary. But then, how do the primary names
indicate anything? And let me ask another question,—If we had no
faculty of speech, how should we communicate with one another? Should
we not use signs, like the deaf and dumb? The elevation of our hands
would mean lightness—heaviness would be expressed by letting them drop.
The running of any animal would be described by a similar movement of
our own frames. The body can only express anything by imitation; and
the tongue or mouth can imitate as well as the rest of the body. But
this imitation of the tongue or voice is not yet a name, because people
may imitate sheep or goats without naming them. What, then, is a name?
In the first place, a name is not a musical, or, secondly, a pictorial
imitation, but an imitation of that kind which expresses the nature of
a thing; and is the invention not of a musician, or of a painter, but
of a namer.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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