CHAPTER VI 11. 



RELATION OF TONE AND GESTURE TO WORDS. 



We have already seen that spoken language differs from the 

 language of tone and gesture in being, as a system of signs, 

 more purely conventional. This means that for semiotic 

 purposes articulation is a higher product of mental evolution 

 than either gesticulation or intonation. It also means that as 

 an instrument of such evolution articulate speech is more 

 efficient. The latter point is an important one, so I shall 

 proceed to deal with it at some length. 



As noticed in a previous chapter, our system of coinage, 

 bank-notes, and bills of sale is a more convenient system of 

 signifying value of labour or of property, than is the more 

 primitive and less conventional system of actually exchanging 

 the labour or bartering the property ; and our system of 

 arithmetic is similarly more convenient for the purpose of 

 calculation than is the more natural system of counting on the 

 fingers. But not only are these more conventional systems 

 more convenient ; they are likewise conducive to a higher 

 development of business transactions on the one hand, and of 

 calculation on the other. In the absence of such an improved 

 system of signs, it would be impossible to conduct as many or 

 such intricate transactions and calculations as we do conduct. 

 Similarly with speech as distinguished from gesture. Words, 

 like gestures, are signs of thoughts and feelings ; but in being 

 more conventional they are more pure as signs, and so admit 

 of being wrought up into a much more convenient or 

 efficient system, while at the same time they become more 

 constructive in their influence upon ideation. The great 



