A LIFORE GRAMMAR OF RHETORIC. BOOK I. OF LANGUAGE AND STYLE AS THE CHAPTER I. OF THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF LANGUAGE IN THE 1. LANGUAGE may be defined, the art of com municating thought, or the ideas of the mind, by certain articulate sounds, which are used as signs of those ideas. Illustration. Articulate sounds are those modulations of simple voice, or of sound emitted from the thorax, which are formed by means of the mouth, and its several organs, the teeth, the tongue, the lips, and the palate. 2. The connexion between words and ideas is arbitrary and conventional, owing to the agreement of men among themselves. Illus. Different nations have different languages, or a different set of articulate sounds, which they have chosen, or framed, for communicating their ideas. 3. When we consider written language as a symbol B of spoken, and spoken language as a representation of our ideas, and observe also how little relation subsists between letters and sounds, and again between. sounds and ideas, we shall be satisfied that much artifice and singular efforts of ingenuity were at first employed in the construction of language, that it might accomplish the purposes of communication. Corollary. As speech must have been absolutely necessary previous to the formation of society, the language of the first men, would be barely adequate to their present occasions: but they would enlarge and improve it as their future necessities required. 4. The cries of passion, accompanied with such motions and gestures, as are further expressive of passion, are the only signs which nature teaches all men, and which all understand. (Art. 30. and 31.) Illus. Cries indicative of fear, and gestures expressive of peril, would be used by him who sought to warn his neighbour of danger. Corol. Those exclamations, therefore, which have obtained the name of INTERJECTIONS, uttered in a strong and passionate manner, were, beyond doubt, in the rudest ages of the world, the first elements or beginnings of speech. Names began to be assigned to objects, when more enlarged communications became necessary. 5. The invention of words arose from the imitation, as nearly as it could be carried, of the nature or quality of the object which was named, by the sound of the name which the object or its quality received. Illus. As a painter, who would represent grass, must employ a green colour; so in the beginning of spoken language, the man who gave a name to any thing harsh or boisterous, would employ a harsh or boisterous sound in the pronunciation of that name. He could not do otherwise, if he meant to excite in the hearer the idea of that thing which he sought to name. (See Art. 16, 17, and 18.) Corol. The desire of men to paint, by speech, the objects which they named, in a manner more or less complete, according as the vocal organs had it in their power to effect this imitation, must have been the general motive which led men to the assignation of one name to a particular object rather than another.. (See the Illustrations to Art. 7.) 6. Whatever objects were to be named, in which sound, or noise, or motion, was concerned, the imitation by words was abundantly obvious. Nothing was more natural, than, by the sound of the voice, to imitate the quality of the sound, or noise, or motion, which the external object made; and to form its name accordingly. Illus. Thus, in all languages, we find words constructed upon this principle. A certain bird is called the cuckoo from the sound which it emits. The analogy between the word and the thing signified is discernible, when one sort of wind is said to whistle, and another to roar, when a serpent is said to hiss, a fly to buzz, and falling timber to crash,-when a stream is said to flow, thunder to roar, and hail to rattle. 7. This analogy becomes more obscure in the names of objects which address the sight only, where neither noise nor motion is concerned, and still more in the terms appropriated to moral ideas; but even here it is not altogether lost; and throughout the radical words of all languages some degree of correspondence may be traced with the object signified. Illus. 1. The terms significant of moral and inlellectual ideas, are derived from the names of sensible objects to which they are conceived to be analogous. 2. The most distinguishing qualities of sensible objects, pertaining merely to sight, have, in a great variety of languages, certain radical sounds appropriated to the expression of those qualities. The organs of voice assume but an obscure resemblance to such external qualities as stability and fluidity, hollowness and smoothness, gentleness and violence, yet are these words painted by the sound of certain letters or syllables, which, have some relation to those different states of visible objects. 3. Words formed upon st, usually denote firmness and strength, analogous to the Latin sto; as, stand, stay, staff, slop, stout, steady, stake, stamp, stallion, stately, &c. 4. Sir, in the beginning of words, intimates violent force and energy, analogous to the Greek algavvuus; as, strive, strength, struggle, stride, stress, stretch, strike, stripe, &c. 5. Thr, implies forcible motion; as, throw, thrust, throb, through, threaten, thraldom, &c. 6. Wr, denotes obliquity or distortion; as, wry, wrest, wrestle, wreath, wring, wrong, wrangle, wrath, wrack, &c. 7. Su, indicates silent agitation, or lateral motion; as, sway, swing, swerve, sweep, swim, &c. 8. Sl, implics a gentle fall, or less observable motion; as, slide, slip, sly, slit, slow, slack, sling, &c. 9. Sp, intimates dissipation or expansion; as, spread, sprout, sprinkle, split, spill, spring, &c. 10. Terminations in ash indicate something acting nimbly and sharply; as, crash, gash, rash, flash, tash, slash, &c. 11. Ush in the ending of words, implies something acting more obtusely or dully; as, crush, brush, hush, gush, blush, &c.* Observation. These significant roots have been considered as a peculiar beauty or excellency of our native tongue, which, beyond all others, expresses the nature or qualities of the objects that it names, by employing sounds sharper, softer, weaker, stronger, more obscure, or more stridulous, according as the idea requires which is to be suggested. 8. The immense field of language, in every na-` tion, is, however, filled up by numerous fanciful and irregular methods of derivation and composition. Corol. Words, therefore, come to deviate widely from the primitive character of their roots, and frequently lose all analogy or resemblance in sound to the thing signified. Taken generally, as we now employ them, words may be considered as symbols, not as imitations; as arbitrary, or instituted, not natural signs of ideas. CHAPTER II. OF THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF LANGUAGE IN THE MANNER OF UTTERING OR PRONOUNCING WORDS. 9. A SECOND character of language, in its early state, is drawn from the manner in which mankind at first pronounced or uttered words. Illus. 1. Interjections or passionate language being the first elements of speech, (Corol. Art. 4.) men would labour to communicate their feelings to one another, by those expressive cries and gestures, which they were taught by nature. (Art. 4. Illus.) 2. Language in its infancy, picturesque but barren, would be intermixed with many exclamations and earnest gestures. Its scanty vocabulary rendered these helps necessary for explaining the conceptions of uncultivated men. 3. Tones, rough and unmusical at first, and significant gesticulations would supply the temporary absence of the few words which men knew; and by these supplemental methods they would endeav * The President Des Brosses has very ably examined this subject in his work, entitled "Traite de la Formation Mechanique des Langue" |