_Words_ are _articulate_ sounds, used by common consent, not as natural,
but as artificial, signs of our ideas. Words have no meaning in
themselves. They are merely the artificial representatives of those
ideas affixed to them by compact or agreement among those who use them.
In English, for instance, to a particular kind of metal we assign the
name _gold;_ not because there is, in that sound, any peculiar aptness
which suggests the idea we wish to convey, but the application of that
sound to the idea signified, is an act altogether arbitrary. Were there
any natural connexion between the sound and the thing signified, the
word _gold_ would convey the same idea to the people of other countries
as it does to ourselves. But such is not the fact. Other nations make
use of different sounds to signify the same thing. Thus, _aurum_ denotes
the same idea in Latin, and _or_ in French. Hence it follows, that it is
by custom only we learn to annex particular ideas to particular sounds.
SPOKEN LANGUAGE or speech is made up of articulate sounds uttered by the
human voice.
_The voice_ is formed by air which, after it passes through the glottis,
(a small aperture in the upper part of the wind-pipe,) is modulated by
the action of the throat, palate, teeth, tongue, lips, and nostrils.
Pages:
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56