THE EXPRESSIVENESS OF SPEECH 135 



How Speech originated. 



Some of the correspondences which have been here 

 pointed out between words and their meanings, will doubt- 

 less be held by many to be mere fantastic imaginings 

 But if we try to picture to ourselves the condition of man- 

 kind when first acquiring and developing spoken lan- 

 guage, and struggling in every possible way to produce 

 articulate sounds which should carry in themselves, both 

 to the speaker and the hearer, some expression of the 

 things, motions, or actions represented, it will seem quite 

 natural that they should utilize everything connected 

 with the act of speaking which could in any way further 

 that object. We are apt to forget that, though speech is 

 now acquired by children solely by imitation, and must 

 be to them almost wholly conventional, this was not its 

 original character. Speech was formed and evolved, not 

 by children, but by men and women who felt the need of 

 a mode of communication other than by gesture only.^ 

 Gesture-language and word-language doubtless arose 

 together, and for a longtime were used in conjunction and 

 supplemented each other. It is admitted that gesture- 

 language is never purely conventional, but is based either 

 on direct imitation or on some kind of analogy or sug- 

 gestion ; and it is therefore almost certain that word- 

 language, arising at the same time, would be developed in 

 the same way, and would never originate in purely con- 

 ventional terms. Gesture would at first be exclusively 



1 One of the critics of this article ignored this very obvious fact, and 

 argued that the onl}^ way to gain correct notions of the origin of 

 language was, through close observation of the speech of children, — 

 that this was the snentijlc method, and mine altogether unscientific. 

 I venture to maintain the contrary. Men and women would need 

 language, while to children it would be quite unnecessary. And 

 at its Ji7'st origin it could not have been conventional, since there 

 would have been no means of explaining the conventions or coming 

 to any agreement as to their use. Both gesture and speecli must 

 have originated in actions or sounds which were felt by the hearers 

 to be expressive. Every one would be seeking after such modes of 

 expression, and amidst these various efforts the fittest would survive. 

 New words are even now formed and adopted in this waj', and hardly 

 any other mode is conceivable. 



