Language. 905 



Language arises from the expression in muscular motion of conditions 

 in the brain. We have seen that such conditions are constantly and au- 

 tomatically giving rise to such muscular motions, as inevitably as a 

 wii id causes the flutter of a flag. As we know which way the wind 

 blows when we see the flag flutter, so a savage, or even a wild beast, 

 knows something of the "state of mind " of another when he sees his 

 actions. Thus, all actions become signs of mental conditions, whether 

 they are purposive or not. But it is only when signs nro used f.n- the 

 purpose of conveying an idea of the state of the mind, that they prop- 

 erly become language. The associated activities of animals, their fam- 

 ily, social and tribal relations, all arise from, and depend upon, the ex- 

 change of the indications of their mental states. The processes of 

 such an exchange would therefore necessarily become a matter of evo- 

 lution, and a subject of selection. The competition in such selection 

 would be between the different motions which are forced upon the parts 

 of the body by the internal state ; the limbs, the head and neck, the 

 e}*es, the jaws and the voice. For many obvious reasons, or, in other 

 words, from many obvious causes, the voice has been preferred among 

 the birds and mammals, at least, and it has undergone more or less de- 

 velopment in nearly all of them, as an instrument for the indication of 

 internal states. 



I think it can be shown that the purposive expression natural to idea- 

 tion, as distinguished from mere emotion, is imitation. That is, it is 

 natural to imitate the objective force which produced the idea. The au- 

 ditory ideas are naturally expressed by the voice in imitating the sounds 

 which originally produced the ideas. The sight ideas are naturally ex- 

 pressed by the limbs and body, especially the arms and hands, in pro- 

 ducing an imitation of the visible objects from which they arose. Ideas 

 of smell and taste are expressed by the muscles of the nose, face and 

 lips, the imitation being in this case a reproduction of the facial move- 

 ments, grimaces and expressions, caused by the stimulating objects in 

 the first place. Original language would therefore be made up princi- 

 pally of imitative sounds, chiefly vocal, of gestures imitative of visible 

 objects or movements, and of facial expressions imitative of those caused 

 by subjective states of feeling. Accordingly we find children at first 

 imitating the sounds they hear. A cow to them is a moo, a sheep is a 

 baa, a rooster is a coo-coo-coo-a, a locomotive is a chu-chu, &c. The 

 sound associated with an object is imitated to describe it, provided it is 

 easily done. A little girl of my acquaintance just learning to talk, once, 

 at the table, accidentally upset a cup of molasses. Her father in dip- 

 ping it up again used, in a half chiding way, the exclamation of goshee! 

 f/os/tccf The term was at once innocently incorporated into the child's 

 vor. titulary, and thereafter when she wanted the toothsome sweet she 

 always called for "goshee." 



