H. A. S.
W. S. L.
B. I. W.

September 1, 1890.

CONTENTS

CHAPTERPAGE
I.[On the Development of Language]1
II.[On the Differentiation of Language]13
III.[On Sound-Change]24
IV.[Change in Word-Signification]43
V.[Analogy]73
VI.[The Fundamental Facts of Syntax]92
VII.[Change of Meaning in Syntax]123
VIII.[Contamination]140
IX.[Original Creation]157
X.[On Isolation and the Reaction against it]170
XI.[The Formation of New Groups]191
XII.[On the Influence of Change in Function on Analogical Formation]205
XIII.[Displacement in Etymological Grouping]217
XIV.[On the Differentiation of Meaning]226
XV.[Categories: Psychological and Grammatical]238
XVI.[Displacement of the Syntactical Distribution]268
XVII.[On Concord]285
XVIII.[Economy of Expression]302
XIX.[Rise of Word-Formation and Inflection]314
XX.[The Division of the Parts of Speech]343
XXI.[Language and Writing]365
XXII.[On Mixture in Language]381
XXIII.[The Standard Language]395
ERRATA.
Page57,line 1, add ‘a gulf or bay.’
”176,line 7, for ‘ðoances’ read ‘ðances.’

CHAPTER I.
ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF LANGUAGE.

It is the province of the Science of Language to explain, as far as possible, the processes of the development of Language from its earliest to its latest stage. The observations made on these processes would naturally be registered in different historical grammars of different definite languages; these grammars would follow the different steps in the development of each single language from its earliest traditional origin to its most recent phase. Wider and more general observations on the processes of this development would naturally be expressed in a comparative grammar, whose task would be to examine and compare the relations between cognate families of speech, the common origin of which is lost: but it would in this case be necessary to insist that the comparisons instituted should only be between languages in the same stage of development; or that the same stage of development, in each of the languages selected for comparison, should be taken for the purpose.

It is the task of Descriptive Grammar to ascertain and record the grammatical forms and the conditions generally of a given linguistic community at a given time; to register, in fact, all the utterances of any individual belonging to such community which might fall from him without exposing him to the suspicion of being a foreigner. It will naturally register its observations in abstractions, such as paradigms and rules. Now, if we compare the abstractions made at any given period of a language with those made at another time, we find that the results are different, and we say that the language has changed in certain respects: nay, we may even be able to detect a certain regularity in these changes; as, for instance, if we note that in English every th in the third person singular present indicative of a verb is now replaced by s: but we gather by such comparisons no information as to the true nature and origin of these changes. Cause and effect do not and cannot exist between mere abstractions: they exist only between real objects and facts. It is only when we begin to take account of the psychical and bodily organisms on which language depends, and to seek for relations of cause and effect in connection with these, that we are on safe ground.