58 DEGEXERATION : 



D 



The term (degeneration of language) includes two 

 very distinct things ; the one is degeneration of gram- 

 matical form, the other degeneration of the language 

 as an instrument of thought. The former is a far 

 commoner phenomenon than the latter, and, in fact, 

 whilst actually degenerating so far as grammatical 

 complexity is concerned, a language may be at the 

 same time becoming more and more serviceable, or 

 more and more perfect as an organ having a particular 

 function. The decay of useless inflections and the 

 consequent simplification of language may be com- 

 pared to the specialisation of the one toe of the 

 primitively five-toed foot of the horse, whilst the four 

 others which existed in archaic horses are, one by 

 one, atrophied. Taken by itself, this phenomenon 

 may possibly be described as degeneration, but inas- 

 much as the whole horse is not degenerate, but, on 

 the contrary, specialised and elaborated, it is advis- 

 able to widely distinguish such local atrophy from 

 general degeneration. In the same way language 

 cannot, in relation to this question, be treated as a 

 thing by itself — it must be regarded as a possession 

 of the human organism, and the simplification of its 

 structure merely means in most cases its more com- 

 plete adaptation to the requirements of the organism. 

 True degeneration of language is therefore only 

 found as part and parcel of a more general degenera- 

 tion of mental activity. To some extent the conclu- 



