ARTlCVLAliON. 1 33 



It appears, then, first, that talking birds may learn to associate 

 certain words with certain objects and qualities, certain other 

 words or phrases with the satisfaction of particular desires 

 and the observation of particular actions ; words so used we 

 may term vocal-gestures. Second, that they may invent 

 sounds of their own contriving, to be used in the same way ; 

 and that these sounds may be either imitative of the objects 

 designated, as the sound of running fluid for " Water," or 

 arbitrary, as the " particular squeak " that designated " Nuts." 

 Third, but that in a much greater number of cases the sounds 

 (verbal or otherwise) uttered by talking birds are imitative 

 only, without the animals attaching to them any particular 

 meaning. The third division, therefore, we may neglect as 

 presenting no psychological import ; but the first and second 

 divisions require closer consideration. 



In designating as "vocal gestures"* the correct use 

 (acquired by direct association) of proper names, noun- 

 substantives, adjectives, verbs, and short phrases. I do not 

 mean to disparage the faculty which is displayed. On the 

 contrary, I think this faculty is precisely the same as that 

 whereby children first learn to talk ; for, like the parrot, the 

 infant learns by direct association the meanings of certain 

 words (or sounds) as denotative of certain objects, connotative 

 of certain qualities, expressive of certain desires, actions, and 

 so on. The only difference is that, in a few months after its 

 first commencement in the child, this faculty develops into 

 proportions far surpassing those which it presents in the bird, 

 so that the vocabulary becomes much larger and more 

 discriminative. But the important thing to attend to is that 

 at first, and for several months after its commencement, the 

 vocabulary of a child is always designative of particular 

 objects, qualities, actions, or desires, and is acquired by direct 

 association. The distinctive peculiarity of human speech, 

 which elevates it above the region of animal gesticulation, is 

 of later growth — the peculiarity, I mean, of using words, no 



• This term has been previously used by some philologists to signify ejacula- 

 tion by man. It will be observed that I use it in a more extended sense. 



