Language: Its Nature, Development and Origin |
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Common terms and phrases
adjective agglutination apophony Aryan Beach-la-mar become belong Bopp Bopp's century child Chinese coalescence theory comparative linguistics compared connexion consonant corresponding Danish dialects distinction ending English etymology examples explained expressions fact father Finnic flexion forms French gender genitive German give Gothonic grammar Greek Grimm grown-up guages idea imitation influence instance Keltic language later Latin laws less Max Müller meaning mentioned modern mother nation native natural nouns object Old Norse onomatopeia original person philology phonetic Pidgin plural prepositions primitive pronoun pronunciation question Rasmus Rask root Sanskrit Schleicher scholars Schuchardt seen sense sentence shift signification similar sound changes sound laws sound symbolism speak speakers speech spoken stages structure substantive suffix Sütterlin syllables symbolism tendency theory things thought tion tongue verb Vilhelm Thomsen vocabulary vowel whole women word order
Popular passages
Page 33 - The Sanskrit language, whatever be its antiquity, is of a wonderful structure; more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either, yet bearing to both of them a stronger affinity, both in the roots of verbs and in the forms of grammar, than could possibly have been produced by accident; so strong indeed, that no philologer could examine them all three, without believing them to have sprung from some common source, which, perhaps, no longer exists...
Page 253 - My dear boy, no woman is a genius. Women are a decorative sex. They never have anything to say, but they say it charmingly. Women represent the triumph of matter over mind, just as men represent the triumph of mind over morals.
Page 142 - Women know The way to rear up children (to be just), They know a simple, merry, tender knack Of tying sashes, fitting baby-shoes, And stringing pretty words that make no sense, And kissing full sense into empty words...
Page 249 - Not contented with enriching our language by words absolutely new, my fair country-women have gone still farther, and improved it by the application and extension of old ones to various and very different significations. They take a word and change it, like a guinea into shillings for pocket money, to be employed in the several occasional purposes of the day. For instance, the adjective VAST and its adverb VASTLY mean any thing, and are the fashionable words of the most fashionable people.
Page 252 - ... have only one set of ideas, and one set of words to clothe them in, and these are always ready at the mouth. So people come faster out of a church when it is almost empty, than when a crowd is at the door.
Page 434 - Men sang out their feelings long before they were able to speak their thoughts.
Page 252 - ... a mind full of ideas, will be apt in speaking to hesitate upon the choice of both; whereas common speakers have only one set of ideas, and one set of words to clothe them in; and these are always ready at the...
Page 413 - The faculty peculiar to man, in his primitive state, by which every impression from without received its vocal expression from within, must be accepted as an ultimate fact.
Page 250 - I comprehend all fine gentlemen too, not knowing in truth where to place them properly, is vastly obliged, or vastly offended, vastly glad, or vastly sorry. Large objects are vastly great, small ones are vastly little; and I had lately the pleasure to hear a fine woman pronounce, by a happy metonymy, a very small gold snuff-box that was produced in company to be vastly pretty, because it was vastly little.
Page 7 - ; we hear of the ' life ' of languages, of the ' birth ' of new languages and of the ' death ' of old languages, and the implication, though not always realized, is that a language is a living thing, something analogous to an animal or a plant. Yet a language evidently has no separate existence in the same way as a dog or a beech has, but is nothing but a function of certain living human beings. Language is activity, purposeful activity, and we should never lose sight of the speaking individuals...