College Lectures notebook

[Apr?] 24

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Miss Colby's College notebooks Latin hist. chem. German geometry

Language and the Study of Language Prof. Whitney. 339 [underlined] 3The Dean's English, by Geo. W. Moon

"The whole subject of linguistic investigation may be conveniently summed up in the single inquiry. "Why do we speak as we do?"

"content" lookup

"The most rapid and noticable mood of change in our language is that which is all the time varying the extent and meaning of its vocabulary." Especially occurs through an increase in knowledge of various kinds, scientific, physical and metaphysical.

A second mood of change - "They are in their inception inaccuracies of speech. - They are mainly the results of two tendencies, already illustrated in the instance we have given first to make things easy to our organs of speech, to economize time and effort in the work of expression;

second, to get rid of irregular and exceptional forms by extending the prevailing analogies of the language"

All "orthoepists" look up.

"A language is living, where it is the installment of thought of a whole people, the wanted means of expression of all their feelings, experiences, opinions, reasonings; when the connection between it and their mental activity is so close that the one reflects the other, and that the two grow together, the instrument ever adapting itself to the uses which it is to [suport?]

Lecture II

"Language has, in fact, no [separate - crossed out] existence save in the minds and mouths of those who use it; it is made up of separate articulated signs of thought, each of which is uttered