TEE SIGNIFICANCE OF LANGUAGE. 833 



syllable! Grammatical innovations are of the same kind, with the 

 difference that a whole people collaborates in them. How many- 

 awkward, incorrect, and obscure constructions, before finding the 

 one which will be, not an adequate — for there is none such — but a 

 passably sufficient expression of the thought! There is nothing in 

 this long labor that is not of the will. In pursuing this study, we 

 have no need to look for facts of a complicated nature. As in every- 

 thing where the popular mind is in play, we find a surprising sim- 

 plicity in the means, in striking contrast with the extent and impor- 

 tance of the effects. I have designedly taken my examines from the 

 best known languages. 



We give the name of repartition to the intentional process by 

 which words that were synonymous take on different meanings, and 

 can no longer be used for one another. Most linguists deny that 

 there are repartitions, and, when confronted with examples, assert 

 that they are made by scholars and are not popular. The public, 

 however, are not of this opinion. They admit the existence of 

 repartition, and do not believe that there are two absolutely identical 

 terms. JSTow, since the public is the depository and the author of 

 language, its verdict that there shall be no synonymy is effective 

 to work the disappearance of any synonym in a short time. A class 

 of distinctions between words is discredited by their having been 

 made in the study by pretentious teachers of language who have not 

 been called to the task. There are no real distinctions other than 

 those which are made without premeditation, under the pressure of 

 circumstances by sudden inspiration, under the impulse of a real 

 need, by persons who are dealing with the things themselves, asso- 

 ciating the words with them the moment they see them. 



"When two languages or two dialects exist together, a work of 

 classification takes place, and synonymous words are given different 

 ranks. Words rise and fall in dignity as an idiom is considered 

 superior or inferior. Linguistics is here a social or a national affair. 

 As M. J. Gillieron relates of the Lower Valais, where French has 

 encroached upon the Swiss dialect, that the latter has been debased 

 and become vulgar and trivial. Since the French word chambre has 

 come in for the bedroom, the old word paile has been applied only to 

 the garret. In Brittany, according to the Abbe Rousselot, gardens 

 were formerly called courtils, but now that the word jardin has been 

 introduced, a kind of slight has been attached to the old rustic word. 

 It makes no difference if both terms are of the same origin. The 

 Savoyard calls his own parents pere and mere, French, while the 

 fathers and mothers of his cattle are his native pare and mare. What 

 the people do by instinct, all constructive science, all deep analysis, 

 all discussion that has an object, every reflective opinion that would 



VOL. LII. — 61 



