894 
exertion. All our voluntary actions are as much the 
effect.of our mental operations as the uttering or the 
writing of sentences. In the use of language, as in 
other exertions, we indeed execute our own designs ; but 
the enquiry is still equally open as before, what is our 
specific design in using language? 
The second circumstance essential to language, which 
has perhaps tended to confirm the notion that its spe- 
cific object is to communicate our thoughts, is, that the 
signs of human thought form the materials, of which 
language consists. Such signs are always the media 
employed when we communicate our thoughts to one 
another. Yet it may beinquired, whether they admit of 
being also applied to other uses, and whether the object 
of language is, on that account, still more general ? 
The third circumstance of which we took notice, 
that the thoughts of which our words are the signs are 
entertained by the individual using them, is little more 
than a condensation of the two former, and requires no 
separate observation. 
The truth will evolve itself in the clearest. light 
when we discuss the last particular in which language 
has one common character with the communication 
of thought, that it produces appropriate thoughts in 
the mind of the person addressed. This is always 
the intention of the speaker, and if it is used by him 
in a skilful manner, the production. of such thoughts 
is the consequence, This object ismuch more general 
than the communication of our own thoughts; but it is 
not too general to be stated as the real object of lan- 
guage. The conveyance of our sentiments, volitions, 
.and opinions, is only an important part of it. The de- 
finite object of language consists in THE PRODUCTION 
OF THOUGHT BY MEANS OF ORAL SIGNS. 
By adopting this more comprehensive view of the 
subject, we avoid all difficulty about the nature of such 
sentences as are the reverse of the belief of the speaker, 
We avoid the necessity of any inquiry into the propriety 
of considering them as in some sense exhibitions of 
the thoughts which he entertains for the moment, or 
as partial representations of his habitual thoughts, 
We consider them, in common with all sentences, in 
a point of view in which they maintain the same un- 
questionable ground, that is, as instruments fabrica- 
ted to execute our designs ; and our universal design 
in language is, to pscnee e one another such mental 
impressions as we please. Its ulterior purposes, bein 
eonsiderably diversified, admit of subdivisin, 
CHAP. II. 
‘The General Nature of Sentences, 
Accorpine to the author of the Diversions of Purley, 
two parts of speech are necessary to language, the noun 
and the verb, and every sentence must contain both. 
The reason assigned for this is, that one part of speech is 
required as the sign of the idea, and another as the in- 
strument of communication. Theviews which this author 
entertained of the characteristic nature of the verb, and 
the act of communication as distinct from the exhibition 
of the signs of ideas, are not fully developed in his writ- 
ings. We have not, therefore, sufficient. data for ap- 
preciating their merits. The opinion maintained by 
some of his most acute followers is, that affirmation is 
the proper character of ‘all sentences. This is con- 
sidered as closely connected with the doctrine which 
makes the object of language to consist in the com- 
munication of our thoughts ; and by this communication 
GRAMMAR. 
original one in the contrivance of words? ; 
seems to be understood, the act of conveying to our 
neighbours the same connections betwixt ideas, (for- 
merly known to both,) which they possess in our own 
oe This conveyance, and the act of tion, 
are reckoned equivalent. . Affirmation, from ad firmare, 
means the noebeben hey connection betwixt one idea 
and another. The ine which resolves language. 
into assertion does not depend on the truth of the 
theory, that its object is communication, of our, | 
thoughts, Our readers wileunen agree with us in 
denying that sentences intended to deceive are commu- 
nications of the thoughts of the speaker. It must, how= 
ever, be allowed by all, that these sentences are asser- 
tions, the inquiry still remains open, whether or 
not m is the proper character of sentences? .To 
this inquiry the present Chapter is devoted... 
A sentence of assertion includes two ideas expressed Analy 
by two si and another. sign to indicate the affirma- *** 
tion, or the establishment of their mutual connection. 
In the sentence, ‘* man is rational,” ‘“‘ man” expresses. 
one idea, the first two sylables of the word “ rational” 
another, and the last syllable of “ rational” along with 
the word “ is” constitutes a sign expressing the con- 
nection betwixt the two, These different signs are 
not always expressed in separate words. Sometimes two 
of them are contained in one, as in the last word of 
the sentence, “ John walks.” Sometimes all the three 
are contained in a single one, as in the Latin word 
loquitur, for “« he speaks ;”’ or rudet, for “ he is red.’’ 
On a full consideration, however, of the variety of ar« 
rangement which words assume in the use of lan 
and the various kinds of words employed, assertion 
does not appear essential to it. We may produce thought 
without making any assertion. We may, for instance, Langu 
merely call the attention of another person to an object ™ay beu 
formerly known to him. A very extensive depertinhi col 
in the uses to which it is applied is that of exciting the ~~~ 
rson addressed to the performance of vol acts, 
This is done by Imperatives, which certainly differ from , 
assertions. Attempts have indeed been made to reduce 
them under this head, and to regard them in the same. 
light with those affirmations in which an abbreviation 
is produced by condensing a plurality of signs into one, 
This attempt succeeds in so far as it ap to establish 
a fact, that, according to the habits of speaking and un-, 
derstanding one another which we now the 
same meaning may be conveyed by an-affirmation and, 
by an imperative sentence. .The sentence, I nune. et 
versus tecum medilare canoros, is of the same import with 
the affirmative sentence,.JuBEO TE nunc ire et tecum 
meditari versus canoros. But the question recurs, which 
of these modes of expression is likely to have been the 
e formerly observed that the contrivances of lan- Langua 
guage are founded on the known relations existing, on Source’ 
different occasions, betwixt the speaker and the pane hae 
addressed, and are so adapted as’ to enable the : 
to avail himself of these relations for a lishing 
some definite purpose. An answer to. the inquiry, 
what forms of sentences are likely to be, the earliest and 
the simplest, is not obtained by determining what con-. 
nections of thoughts. are simplest in relation to the | ata 
mind of the solitary individual, but. by finding what tm - 
those purposes are which he is likely soonest to,have in — 
view in employing the influence rien language gives, 
him over others. ;' , ae, “a 
The first objects that strike the attention of man in 
ing acquainted with his fellows are their motions. 
Tn other respects, one man is not more interarting AOAeay 
