The Still Lion

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER I. ON THE GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN RELATION TO THE TEXT Ol? SHAKESPEARE. REAT is the mystery of archaic spelling. Let us consider a few caprices of spelling, before proceeding to notice the vitality and consequent instability of written words: just as we must consider the symbolizing and...
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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER I. ON THE GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN RELATION TO THE TEXT Ol? SHAKESPEARE. REAT is the mystery of archaic spelling. Let us consider a few caprices of spelling, before proceeding to notice the vitality and consequent instability of written words: just as we must consider the symbolizing and uses of words before the grammatical structure and force of phrases. The word (5)ju, a), rightly regarded, is an expressed ens rationis. It is purely a matter of convenience, whether it shall be represented to the eye or to the ear. We hold those to be in the wrong who would wholly subordinate the written sign to the sound, as if writing were essentially, as it is historically, a secondary process; and herein we dissent from the teaching of thorough-going Phoneticians. Be that as it may, the object of writing and speaking is not to impart the inner word (vo'/Jia): for transmission of aught from one man's mind to another is impossible: but to suggest it. Still, in effect, something is communicated, or made common to both minds. In order that we may suggest to another man's mind any word that is in ourown, we employ a medium which will stand for it, and lead him to understand it as we do. The written word is simply such a mediatorial symbol. The letters which con-: stitute it are used to represent vocal sounds; and these may be of very variable force and range, while the word so symbolized is invariable. Thus ea and a, or ea and e, may by agreement represent the same vowel-sound; and-/ andj7, or' and i, may, according to circumstances, stand for the same consonant-sound. But further, several written symbols that have little or nothing in common may stand for the same inner word: much more may two written symbols, which have grown by habit and custom from one spoken symbol, ...