174 JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS. 



METAPHYSICAL THEORIES ON THE ORIGIN AND 

 DEVELOPMENT OF 'LANGUAGE. 



Read before the Philological Section Septejnber I'/th, iSgs, 



BY S. A. MORGAN, B. A. 



It is no doubt evident to us all, that any principles we deduce 

 concerning the origin and the nature of a primitive language must 

 necessarily be of a theoretical character. When, however, we con- 

 sider that the faculty of language, /. e., the power of symbolically 

 communicating our ideas by means of articulate sounds, is depen- 

 dent on the possession by the individual of certain intellectual and 

 physical functions, and must therefore follow their operations ; and 

 when we further consider that science enables us to investigate both 

 the nature of these necessary functions and their order of develop- 

 ment, we are led to believe that any logical theories we may deduce 

 in such an investigation will not only prove of interest in themselves, 

 but will also tend to furnish some explanation of the variations in 

 form and grammatical structure to be found in existing languages. 



The few thoughts I shall offer in this paper may be arranged 

 under the following heads : 



(i). Definition of Language. 



(2). Existing theories on the origin of Language. 



(3). Offices of Language. 



{4). Conditions of Language. 



(5). Nature of first elements. 



(6). Processes of development. 



DEFINITION OF LANGUAGE. 



All creatures, whether men or animals that possess the grega- 

 rious instinct, or tend to live in herds, being bound together by a 

 common feeling, may be supposed to desire and. seek after some 

 means of communication. This instinctive desire, aided and de- 

 veloped by experience, has produced in man two forms of thought 

 communication. 



We all no doubt have seen that it is possible, by noting the 



