XIV 



THE CONCEPT 325 



without meaning by his child at five months. 1 The same 

 child, like other children at a later date, invented 

 words to express his wants. 2 Indeed, Darwin places the 

 invention of words before the imitation of words spoken 

 by others in the development of speech. I have noticed 

 that the sounds u Dad, dad, dad," " Mam, mam, mam," 

 are often repeated long before they are used with any 

 meaning, but how far this is due to the child's hearing the 

 sounds, it is impossible to say. 3 Preyer 4 gives a very clear 

 account of the linguistic powers of his child at this age. 



" Of these syllables [a number of meaningless sounds already 

 used by the child], na-na regularly denotes a desire, and the arms 

 are stretched out in connection with it ; mama is referred to the 

 mother perhaps in the fifty-fourth week, on account of the 

 pleasure she shows at the utterance of these syllables, but they 

 are also repeated mechanically without any reference to her ; 

 atta is uttered now and then at going away, but at other times 

 also. His joy e.g., at recognising his mother at a distance the 

 child expresses by crowing sounds, which have become stronger 

 and higher than they were, but which cannot be clearly desig- 

 nated ; the nearest approach to representation of them is ahija. 

 Affirmation and negation may already be recognised by the tone 

 of voice alone. The signification of the cooing and the grunt- 

 ing sounds remains the same. The former indicates desire of 

 food ; the latter the need of relieving the bowels. As ?if to 

 exercise the vocal cords, extraordinarily high tones are now pro- 

 duced, which may be regarded as signs of pleasure in his own 

 power. An imperfect language has thus already been formed 

 imperceptibly, although no single object is as yet designated by a 

 sound assigned to it a/one." 



The understanding of words was somewhat more 

 advanced, but Preyer notes that the word " give," for 

 example, " operates almost like a reflex stimulus, 

 'mechanically/" 5 He taught his child some little tricks 

 in response to certain questions, etc., and just like a dog, 

 whose education is imperfect, the little fellow would 



1 Mind, Vol. II. p. 292. 



2 Ib. p. 293. Taine (Mind, Vol. I. p. 253) also suggests that the effect 

 of example and education is to call a child's attention to the sounds it has 

 already made, i.e., so that it selects sounds appropriately. 



3 Taine (loc. cit. p. 254) notices that "papa" is used without meaning 

 at first, and is associated with the father later. 



4 Preyer, II. p. 114. 5 P. 120. 



