THE THEORY AND STRUCTURE OF LANGUAGE
Erasmus Darwin, grandfather of Charles Darwin, correctly, as I am inclined to say, defines words as abbreviations of other modes of expression. (I think other modes truly reflect whatever one has in mind. One only needs to pay attention here, to get the real meaning, for example, of what, one is being told) And that the first aim of language was to communicate our thoughts, and the second, to exchange it. Thus there are two categories of words, those, which were necessary to express our thoughts, and those that are abbreviations of those words, the rearrangement of which, is the process that goes on when we think. That can cause words to suggest more than one idea. A theory for language needs to be analyzed thus.
His book, The Temple Of Nature, then goes on to examine each individual component of a language, like nouns, pronouns, adjectives, conjunctions, and prepositions, noting the way it might have eased the expression of thought. And arrives at a conclusion - the great variety of changes of termination in all languages consists therefore of abbreviations of existing words used, rather than additional words.
The book deviates from the common idea we entertain about languages - that it is a means for expression. The idea proposed here - that it is for mainly meant for communicating our thoughts, is closer to mine - that language is primarily for enabling us to think, and then only, for communicating it.
Erasmus Darwin, grandfather of Charles Darwin, correctly, as I am inclined to say, defines words as abbreviations of other modes of expression. (I think other modes truly reflect whatever one has in mind. One only needs to pay attention here, to get the real meaning, for example, of what, one is being told) And that the first aim of language was to communicate our thoughts, and the second, to exchange it. Thus there are two categories of words, those, which were necessary to express our thoughts, and those that are abbreviations of those words, the rearrangement of which, is the process that goes on when we think. That can cause words to suggest more than one idea. A theory for language needs to be analyzed thus.
His book, The Temple Of Nature, then goes on to examine each individual component of a language, like nouns, pronouns, adjectives, conjunctions, and prepositions, noting the way it might have eased the expression of thought. And arrives at a conclusion - the great variety of changes of termination in all languages consists therefore of abbreviations of existing words used, rather than additional words.
The book deviates from the common idea we entertain about languages - that it is a means for expression. The idea proposed here - that it is for mainly meant for communicating our thoughts, is closer to mine - that language is primarily for enabling us to think, and then only, for communicating it.
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