452 Gesture Language and Word Language. 



who lias trained a dog, or used the services of a trained 

 dog, understands the sounds he makes in reference to par- 

 ticular incidents and occasions, so that a particular bark or 

 growl gives information which, within certain limits, is definite 

 and precise. Analogous facts may be observed by resting 

 quietly near a rookery, or at the base of cliffs where sea gulls 

 build. It soon becomes obvious to the observer that the birds 

 attach definite meanings to certain sounds, and thus, like the 

 dogs, they are in possession of some elements of language } 

 but we should not expect, if we were gifted with the faculty of 

 thoroughly comprehending their speech, that we should detect 

 any grammar in it, and find verbs to conjugate or nouns to 

 decline. The civilized and educated dog acquires, from con- 

 tact with man, ideas and thoughts that do not belong to the 

 life of any wild animal. To a very considerable extent he 

 learns human language, so far as it applied within his hearing 

 to matters he can comprehend, and if he had the faculty of 

 imitating it like a parrot or a jackdaw there can be no doubt 

 he would use it to express his acquired ideas. What he really 

 does is to improve his own voice language, and gesture language 

 too, and there is a strongly marked difference between the 

 power of expression professed by a well-bred, well-educated 

 dog, and that which is at the disposal of another dog who is 

 badly bred and uncultivated. 



The capacity for forming a language is inseparably asso- 

 ciated with the faculty of generating thought. We need not 

 inquire whether man can think without any sort of language, 

 of gesture, picture, or speech to assist his efforts ; but no 

 people have ever been discovered, and probably none could 

 exist, who have arrived at complex processes of thought, in- 

 cluding the power of abstraction and generalization, without 

 possessing a language capable of signifying what they meant. 



A very interesting branch of the inquiry into language 

 relates to the modes of expression adopted by deaf-mutes, and 

 Mr. Tylor points to the important distinction — generally over- 

 looked by the public — between " the real deaf and dumb lan- 

 guage of signs, in which objects and actions are expressed by 

 pantomimic gestures, and the deaf and dumb finger alphabet, 

 which is a mere substitute for alphabetical writing." Mr. 

 Tylor cites the following authorities in order to show how deaf- 

 mutes naturally talk. Samuel Heinicke, the founder of deaf 

 and dumb teaching in Germany, remarks : '", he (the deaf-mute) 

 prefers keeping to his pantomime, which is simple and short, and 

 comes to him fluently as a mother-tongue." Schmalz says : 

 "not less comprehensible are many signs which we do not use 

 in ordinary life, but which the deaf and dumb child uses, 

 having no means of communicating with others but by signs. 



