Language further enables us to overcome, whenever this is necessary, the ambiguity of its own elements (the words) which results from the individual and historical conditions influencing the growth of speech. The meaning of words can be fixed by definition. Such words as _circle_, _energy_, _freedom_, have many different meanings (a circle of friends, the energy of style, the freedom of a city). The physicist defines energy as the capacity for performing mechanical work, excluding any and all other meanings. The philosopher defines freedom as the possession of the power to act in accordance with one’s inherent nature, independent of external causes. Because of the association between the defined and the defining words, the latter keep the defined word from being used wrongly, by entering consciousness when the defined word happens to be used in an improper connection. It is true that, in order to insure constancy of meaning, the defining words, too, should be defined again by others, and so on. A perfect definition is therefore an ideal which can be approached, but never reached. In spite of this, the value to human thought and knowledge of clearly defined concepts is immeasurable. QUESTIONS 141. Why does generalization play such an insignificant part in the mental life of animals? 142. What are the four languages of educated normal people? 143. Which of these languages is acquired first by the child? 144. How does baby talk originate? 145. How are the reduplications of baby talk to be explained? 146. What is the origin of “a foreign accent” in speech? 147. Why does voluntary imitation of speech sounds by a baby develop at first very slowly? 148. Illustrate the inventiveness of children in learning to speak. 149. What could make one think that children surpass grown people in the ability to generalize? 150. What are the four stages in the development of an individual’s language? 151. What is the advantage or disadvantage of uniformity and individuality in the use of language? 152. Illustrate how a word of individual meaning changes to a general meaning. 153. Illustrate how a word of general meaning changes to an individual meaning. 154. Explain the psychological origin of a metaphor and a metonymy. 155. Illustrate and explain the deterioration of words. 156. Illustrate slang and explain its origin. 157. Is it desirable that the written language should retard the growth of the spoken language? Give reasons for your answer. 158. What significance has language besides serving as a means of communication? 159. What is a definition? Why can a definition never become perfect? § 17. JUDGMENT AND REASON 1. _Coherent Thought_