Mankind, Nation and Individual from a Linguistic Point of View

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H. Aschehoug & Company, 1925 - Language and languages - 222 pages
 

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Page 8 - We must then never forget that the organs of speech besides serving for the conveyance of thought, and before they begin to be used for that purpose, are one of mankind's most treasured toys, and that not only children but also grown people, in civilized as well as in savage communities, find amusement in letting their vocal chords and tongue and lips play all sorts of games.
Page 69 - In the present day we may, however, recognize a received pronunciation all over the country, not widely differing in any particular locality, and admitting a certain degree of variety.
Page 110 - Quae nunc sunt in honore vocabula, si volet usus, Quem penes arbitrium est et jus et norma loquendi.
Page 110 - Man's works must perish : how should words evade The general doom, and flourish undecayed ? Yes, words long faded may again revive, And words may fade now blooming and alive, If usage wills it so, to whom belongs The rule, the law, the government of tongues.
Page 69 - Saxon at this day, yet it is not so Courtly nor so currant as our Southerne English is ; no more is the far Westerne mans speach. Ye shall therefore take the vsuall speach of the Court, and that of London and the shires lying about London within Ix. myles, and not much aboue.
Page 137 - ... the ideal human language must be that which by the simplest and easiest possible means is able to express human thoughts in the fullest manner and in the manner which is easiest for the recipient.
Page 69 - I say not this but that in euery shyre of England there be gentlemen and others that speake, but specially write, as good Southerne as we of Middlesex or Surrey do, but not the common people of euery shire, to whom the gentlemen, and also their learned clarkes, do for the most part condescend ; but herein we are already ruled by th' English Dictionaries and other bookes written by learned men, and therefore it needeth none other direction in that behalfe.
Page 70 - I must disclaim any intention of setting up a standard of spoken English. All I can do is to record those facts which are accessible to me — to describe that variety of spoken English of which I have a personal knowledge, that is, the educated speech of London and the district round it — the original home of Standard English both in its spoken and literary form.
Page 193 - La poesie ne consiste pas a tout dire, mais a tout faire rever.' Besides the complexity that comes from successive radiation, there is a perpetual exchange of influences among the meanings themselves. Thus when we speak of a man as the ' intellectual head of a movement,' head means ' leader
Page 98 - We rest; a dream has power to poison sleep. We rise; one wandering thought pollutes the day. We feel, conceive, or reason; laugh or weep, Embrace fond woe, or cast our cares away; It is the same: for, be it joy or sorrow, The path of its departure still is free. Man's yesterday may ne'er be like his morrow; Nought may endure but mutability!

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