10 HISTORY OF LANGUAGE 



general applicability to the facts of linguistic history cannot well 

 be gainsaid. But the moment a speech comes into the possession of 

 a great literature, this condition of things is changed. The same 

 agencies are at work as in the case of an uncultivated tongue; but 

 they vary distinctly in the influence they exert, and the results in 

 consequence are in striking contrast to those just given. 



In cultivated speech addition to the vocabulary goes on extens- 

 ively, goes on rapidly. Furthermore it goes on with little opposition. 

 The hostility to the introduction of new terms is almost invariably 

 directed against particular words, and in the case of these it is often 

 confined to particular persons. It therefore takes the form of an 

 expression of individual prejudice and not that of general aversion 

 on the part of users of speech. In cultivated speech addition to the 

 vocabulary is in truth a necessity of the situation. The circle of 

 knowledge and thought is constantly enlarging. The new facts learned, 

 the new discoveries made, the new inventions originated, the new 

 ideas entertained, the new distinctions set up, all these demand either 

 the use of old words in new senses or the introduction or formation 

 of new words. The latter is the course most usually followed. It is 

 not, nor is it felt to be objectionable. Men indeed frequently make it 

 a matter of boast that they were the first to hit upon the employment 

 of some term which designates exactly the view of some new fact or 

 theory or condition which all recognize but have found difficult to 

 express. The irruption of a large number of words hitherto unknown 

 into a speech is under the circumstances just mentioned not an indica- 

 tion of the corruption or decay of a language, but an evidence of the 

 intellectual health and vigor of its users. Scores and even hundreds 

 of terms will be proposed for admission which find no permanent 

 lodgment; for speech can ordinarily be trusted to reject that which 

 is really needless, that which adds nothing to clearness or to force of 

 expression; on the other hand, to choose arid to hold fast with an 

 instinct which may almost be deemed unerring that which it requires 

 for its best and fullest development. 



Consequently in a cultivated tongue the introduction of new 

 words is something that is going on constantly whenever and wher- 

 ever intellectual life exists. But when to such a tongue comes the 

 consideration of new giammatical forms or constructions, there ensues 

 at once a complete change of front. The attitude, instead of being 

 one of friendliness or acquiescence, is that of violent hostility. The 

 newcomer meets with examination from everybody and with denun- 

 ciation from many. There is a feeling on the part of the cultivated 

 users of speech that any alteration of grammatical structure cannot 

 be an improvement upon existing usage, as would be conceded by all 

 in the case of the introduction of some new word. Rightly or wrongly 

 the disposition does not prevail to look upon it as a process of evolu- 



