G R A M MAR. 



to the' orig'iii, naturf, clairificatios, and the propcilics of 

 words. 



The Origin, Ndture, and Clajpjication of IVords. 



Words have been defined articulate or figuificarit founds, 

 farmed by the organs of fpccch, and irfed by common confcnt 

 as figns of ideas. The propriety of tliis dcllnilion will appear,- 

 if we attend to the mode in which words-acquire their lignill- 

 cfition. Tiie belt method to teach a language, with which 

 a youth is )'et entirely unacquainted, would, if attended to, 

 clearly unfold the nature and origin of fpeech in "general. 

 Suppofe a boah is held out before him for the iiril lime, an 

 iniprejjion, plianliifm, or it! a of that objeft is thus conveyed to 

 his mind by the organ of fight. While this impreflion con- 

 tinues, fuppofe farther that the found book is dillinetly ut- 

 tered ; he will then have an imprefiion or idea of the found 

 conveyed througli the fenfc of hearing, which will be ren- 

 dered more di(linA,'f he himfelf betaught to enunciateit. The 

 t»-o ideas, namely, that ot the o/ifc!, and that of the found 

 will then, if long continued, or often repeated, coalelce in 

 his mind, and become fo ilronglv connected, that the idea of 

 the object lliall fuggeft that of the found, book : and, on 

 the other h:uid, the found fiiall recal the objeft. The prin- 

 ciple on v.hich this coalition is founded, is a law of the 

 human mind, known under the r.ame cffocintion of ideas; and 

 the progrefs of the learner in connetting other ideas with 

 other founds, is only a repetition of the operation, till the 

 whole language is acquired. 



- From this brief defcription, naturally follow a few in- 

 ferences of importance, to be obferved on this fubjedt. FiijI, 

 founds, though fo clofely connected by frequent ufe with the 

 tilings fignilied, as not to be feparated from them even in 

 i'liagination, ha-v-e no natural airmity witii them. Any other 

 I'ound than book, moon for iullance, might have been aflb- 

 ciated wiihthat objeft in the mind of a learner, and this lalt 

 nanie would as naturally, by ufe, be applied to book, as we 

 now apply it to the object fo known in the fl<y. And this is 

 llie realon why the fame idea is expreffed by different founds 

 in different countries, whei-e each lound is rendered equal'v 

 natural and familiar by repeated affociations. Strondly, as 

 language altogether depends on an arbitrary compact be- 

 tween lound and fenfe, there exilt not, in any regular polilh- 

 ed tongue, fuch words as natural articulate founds. There 

 are, indeed, in all languages, certain founds indicating de- 

 fife or averfion, pleafure or pain, but thefe are natural cries, 

 and not articulate founds ; and they arife more from the 

 itrudlure of man as an animal, than from his rank as an in- 

 telligent being, capable of forming dillinct idi-as, and ex- 

 preiiing them by articulate founds. Hence fuch founds are 

 common to him with inferior animals, and abound mofl among 

 men in the favage itate, where language is leait formed. 

 The abore explanation farther excludes what have been call- 

 ed factitious words, or words whole foiuid bears fome refem- 

 blan^ to the fenfe. Son-ie words indeed, of this kind, are 

 fiippofed to exili in all languages ; but the fupi>ori;ien, we 

 venture to afhrm, is erroneous, the imagined fimilarity being 

 ^altogether the effect of aHociation. This principle, wlien a 

 word is heard, inftantly fuggeils its meaning, and while we 

 t/'/erlook tiie luggeilion, we afcribe the fenfe to a fancied 

 limilitude between it and the found. Let an idea be in your 

 mind, when you bear a cock croiv, or a bell toll, and you \\ ill 

 immediately fuppofe, that the found of the cock, or of the 

 bell, conveyed the entertained idea. This is a delufion pre- 

 cifely fimilar to that into wliich we fall refpefting the import 

 of -factitious words. If there be any word in our language, 

 or: in any language naturally indicative of the fenfe, it is 

 Vol. XVI. 



cuckoo ; and yet adi a foreigner, aitogelher iinacquaintrd' 

 with Engliih, v.hat the ti-rjn means, and lie will not by any 

 means be able, iVom the found, to afccrlain the obiett fiir- 

 niiied. The word is a repetition of coo coo, which cxiC.i 

 in Greek under tiie form of -. caa, and which in Pcrfian 

 Jignifies the found made by a Urong emifiion of the breath. 

 Hence tbe Perfians cxprefs the ox-kind by caa, which we 

 have borrowed and confined to the female roo', which origi- 

 nally meant a lou-ing animal. In Chaldee, cuclto means a 

 magpie, the found o*' whofe voice is very different from tlial 

 of the cuckoo. We cannot help remarking, that if a limi- 

 litude between found and feiife obtained in any part of lan- 

 guage, it would appear more irianifell and predominant in the 

 moll ancient languages, and efpccially in Hebrew, which we 

 conceive by tar the moll aiieicnt, even of the Afiatic tongues. 

 But we venture to affirm, that not a lingle inllancc ot the 

 kind can be produced in that tongue. And this early fpe- 

 cimen of human language is a fair prefumptien, that the prin- 

 ciple of faftitious founds did not in the leaft obtain in the 

 firft formation of fpeech. 



From the above explanation we infer, in the third 

 place, that the names of things, at firit, were names of indi- 

 vidual objeds, and that man learnt in youth, to form general 

 ideas,yc//i"/y by means of language. Thuawith refpeCttotheabove- 

 mentioned youth, when he has connected the found book with 

 the thing fo called, the word is only a fign of the individual 

 book whicli was iiril prefented to him. Prefentiv, however, 

 he perceives the fame found applied fucceifively to other ob- 

 jcfts of the fame kind ; and this application leads, and in a 

 manner compels him to note thofe pecuhar circumllances 

 which diltinguifh each book, and thofe, on the other hand, 

 which belong to tliat whole clafs of objects. As the found 

 is not repeatedly alfociatcd with the former, he forgets, and 

 confequently oi-crloois them ; while he combines the ideas 

 belonging to the clafs, and retains them in a clofer and yet 

 clofer imion, under the term which was his inftrument in 

 forming thofe ideas. - In this manner are all our ab/lraa 

 ideas acquired; and language, as the ftiind rifes by means of 

 it, from the contemplation of one to many objects, from \m- 

 dividuals to clafTes, is the fole inilrument in acquiring them. 

 Some indillintl idea of this procefs was probably the cir- 

 cumftance which led our celebrated grammarian, Mr. H. 

 Tooke, to fay, (vol. i. p. 36.) " That the compofition of 

 ideas was merely a contrivance of language ; that the only 

 compofition was in the terms, and that they are not ideas, but 

 merely terms which are general and abllract.'' In another 

 place, he denies the operations of the mind as influencing 

 fpeech, and talks of the operation of language. Thefe, and 

 fuch other rcmaiks are, however, fo palpably erroneous, that - 

 we cannot afcribe it to ignorance or inattentioir in fo 

 enlightened a critic, but fuppofe them to have proceeded 

 chiefly from a delire which pervades his works, of 

 re'jefting tlie ideas of others -as unjuit, becaufc tliey 

 were knoivn, and confpieuoiidy difplaying his own as 

 right, bccaule they were nezL: 'Flie compolition of terms in 

 grammar, is merely the derivation'or combination .of terms, 

 by fuch laus as cullom or analogy have previoufiy determin- 

 ed. Comporuioii of this kind, with which a grammarian, as 

 fuch, has any thing to do, is as dillinct from the compofitioB 

 of ideas, as fonnd is from fenfe, or grammar is from logic. 

 Language has no power but what it has derived from ajoci- 

 alion ; and he who fpeaks of tlx- oper.Ltion of language, in- ' 

 Head of the operation of the mind, ac"ts the abfurd part of 

 a man wlio afcrihes to the pen, the motion of the hand which 

 directs it. If wc can judge -from his works, Mr. Tookc 

 appears not to have ftudied the true theory of the human 

 ^ 1) iiimd ; 



