Lectures on the Science of Language: Delivered at the Royal Institution of Great Britain in ... 1861 [and 1863], Volume 1C. Scribner, 1862 |
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Page 28
... philosophers as a mere illusion , as an agglomerate of atoms , or as the work of an evil principle , we now read and ... philosopher , nay even from the 28 THEORETICAL STAGE .
... philosophers as a mere illusion , as an agglomerate of atoms , or as the work of an evil principle , we now read and ... philosopher , nay even from the 28 THEORETICAL STAGE .
Page 29
... philosopher , nay even from the poet . " At the limits of exact knowledge " ( I quote the words of Humboldt ) , " as from a lofty island - shore , the eye loves to glance towards distant regions . The images which it sees may be ...
... philosopher , nay even from the poet . " At the limits of exact knowledge " ( I quote the words of Humboldt ) , " as from a lofty island - shore , the eye loves to glance towards distant regions . The images which it sees may be ...
Page 31
... philosopher must command his classes like regiments which obey the order of their general . Thus alone can the battle be fought and truth be conquered . After this rapid glance at the history of the other physical sciences , we now ...
... philosopher must command his classes like regiments which obey the order of their general . Thus alone can the battle be fought and truth be conquered . After this rapid glance at the history of the other physical sciences , we now ...
Page 35
... philosopher before the beginning of our century may seem surprising , more surprising even than the indifference with which for mer generations treated the lessons which even the stones seemed to teach of the life still throbbing in the ...
... philosopher before the beginning of our century may seem surprising , more surprising even than the indifference with which for mer generations treated the lessons which even the stones seemed to teach of the life still throbbing in the ...
Page 39
... philosophers you will find that whenever they speak of language , they take it for granted that lan- guage is a human invention , that words are artificial signs , and that the varieties of human speech arose from different nations ...
... philosophers you will find that whenever they speak of language , they take it for granted that lan- guage is a human invention , that words are artificial signs , and that the varieties of human speech arose from different nations ...
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Common terms and phrases
agglutinative ancient Anglo-Saxon Arabic Arya Aryan family Aryan languages Asia beginning Brahmans branch brutes Burnouf called Celtic Celts century Chinese common origin dative declension derived dialects Dionysius Thrax discovered distinct distinguished doubt elements empire English Europe express family of speech Finnic French genitive German Gothic grammarians grammatical forms Greek and Latin growth guage Hebrew Hervas High-German human speech idea India inflectional instance Italian Latin Lectures Leibniz likewise literary literature look Lord Monboddo mankind means modern Mongolic nature never nouns origin of language Persian philology philosophers phonetic corruption physical sciences plough plural preserved primitive pronouns Provençal race Roman Rome Sanskrit Saxon scholars science of language sense skrit Slavonic speak spoken stage Stanislas Julien Strabo supposed Tataric terminations Teutonic thou tion translated tribes Tungusic Turanian Turanian family Turanian languages Turkic Turkish Ulfilas Veda verb vowels words Zend Zend-avesta Zoroaster
Popular passages
Page 371 - If it may be doubted, whether beasts compound and enlarge their ideas that way, to any degree: this, I think, I may be positive in, that the power of abstracting is not at all in them; and that the having of general ideas, is that which puts a perfect distinction betwixt man and brutes; and is an excellency which the faculties of brutes do by no means attain to.
Page 359 - of particular names to denote particular objects, that is, the institution of nouns substantive, would probably be one of the first steps towards the formation of language. Two savages who had never been taught to speak, but had been bred up remote from the societies of men, would naturally begin to form that language by which they would endeavour to make their mutual wants intelligible to each other by uttering certain sounds whenever they meant to denote certain objects. Those objects only which...
Page 155 - The Sanskrit language, whatever be its antiquity, is of a wonderful structure; more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either, yet bearing to both of them a stronger affinity, both in the roots of verbs and in the forms of grammar, than could possibly have been produced by accident; so strong indeed, that no philologer could examine them all three, without believing them to have sprung from some common source, which, perhaps, no longer exists...
Page 31 - And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.
Page 360 - It was impossible that those savages could behold the new objects without recollecting the old ones ; and the name of the old ones, to which the new bore so close a resemblance. When they had occasion, therefore, to mention, or to point out to each other, any of the new objects, they would naturally utter the name of the correspondent old one, of which the idea could not fail, at that instant, to present itself to their memory in the strongest and liveliest manner. And thus, those words, which were...
Page 78 - English amounts to only 13,330, against 29,354 words which can either mediately or immediately be traced to a Latin source.* On the evidence of its dictionary, therefore, and treating English as a mixed language, it would have to be classified together with French, Italian, and Spanish, as one of the Romance or Neo-Latin dialects. Languages, however, though mixed in their dictionary, can never be mixed in their grammar.
Page 231 - It can be proved by the evidence of language, that before their separation the Aryans led the life of agricultural nomads — a life such as Tacitus describes that of the ancient Germans. They knew the arts of ploughing, of making roads, of building ships, of weaving and sewing, of erecting houses ; they had counted at least as far as one hundred.
Page 361 - It is this application of the name of an individual to a great multitude of objects, whose resemblance naturally recalls the idea of that individual, and of the name which expresses it, that seems originally to have given occasion to the formation of those classes and assortments, which, in the schools, are called genera and species, and of which the ingenious and eloquent M.
Page 342 - Language is something more palpable than a fold of the brain, or an angle of the skull. It admits of no cavilling, and no process of natural selection will ever distil significant words out of the notes of birds or the cries of beasts.
Page 342 - The one great barrier between the brute and man is language. Man speaks, and no brute has ever uttered a word. Language is our Rubicon, and no brute will dare to cross it.