Classical literature; Language and languages -- Philosophy
the hearer rejoice together in their newly-discovered faculty. At first
there would be few such cries, and little danger of mistaking or
confusing them. For the mind of primitive man had a narrow range of
perceptions and feelings; his senses were microscopic; twenty or thirty
sounds or gestures would be enough for him, nor would he have any
difficulty in finding them. Naturally he broke out into speech—like the
young infant he laughed and babbled; but not until there were hearers
as well as speakers did language begin. Not the interjection or the
vocal imitation of the object, but the interjection or the vocal
imitation of the object understood, is the first rudiment of human
speech.
After a while the word gathers associations, and has an independent
existence. The imitation of the lion’s roar calls up the fears and
hopes of the chase, which are excited by his appearance. In the moment
of hearing the sound, without any appreciable interval, these and other
latent experiences wake up in the mind of the hearer. Not only does he
receive an impression, but he brings previous knowledge to bear upon
that impression. Necessarily the pictorial image becomes less vivid,
while the association of the nature and habits of the animal is more
distinctly perceived. The picture passes into a symbol, for there would
be too many of them and they would crowd the mind; the vocal imitation,
too, is always in process of being lost and being renewed, just as the
picture is brought back again in the description of the poet. Words now
can be used more freely because there are more of them. What was once
an involuntary expression becomes voluntary. Not only can men utter a
cry or call, but they can communicate and converse; they can not only
use words, but they can even play with them. The word is separated both
from the object and from the mind; and slowly nations and individuals
attain to a fuller consciousness of themselves.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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