- 278 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
The History and Origin of Language
About this book
First Published in 1959 The history and origin of language deals with one of the most important and most fascinating subject matter of all human historical problems-that of the origin and development of language. It is the first attempt to solve it, not by a priori methods, but by marshalling and analyzing the whole of the evidence. It is a work of great originality by a scholar who has written other well-known sociological works, and the treatment is that of the sociologist. Dr Diamond writes for the intelligent layman as well as the linguist.
He first seeks the true nature of language and its true function and structure in modern society and traces the paths along which language has developed and changed in its known history, both in the forms of its words and in their meanings, examining for this purpose many languages of civilized and primitive peoples. These paths he then pursues backwards with the aid of data from human physiology, the language of children, and observations of animal behaviour, and shows how all these paths converge to one beginning and deduces how language originated-both the form of its first words and their meanings. He finally shows relics of these earliest words and meanings in languages which still survive. The arguments are cumulative and many sided, and the case made is convincing. This is a must read for scholars and researchers of linguistics.
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Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Half Title
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Original Title Page
- Original Copyright Page
- Table of Contents
- Synopsis
- 1. Introductory
- 2. The Sentence
- 3. The Vocabulary and the Parts of Speech in English
- 4. The Vocabulary and the Parts of Speech in the different Languages
- 5. The Origin of the Nouns, Adjectives and Adverbs in English
- 6. The Origin of the Nouns, Adjectives and Adverbs in the Classical Languages
- 7. The Origin of the Nouns, Adjectives and Adverbs in the Languages of the Simpler Communities–the Pronouns
- 8. Grammar
- 9. The Request for Action
- 10. The Infinitive
- 11. The Third Person Singular of the Aorist Indicative
- 12. Animal Behaviour
- 13. The History of Meaning
- 14. The History of Meaning (continued)
- 15. The Earliest Words
- 16. The Earliest Words of Children
- 17. The Larynx
- 18. The Origin of Language as displayed in Semitic and Bantu
- 19. The Origin of Language as displayed in Semitic and Bantu (continued)
- 20. Theories of the Origin of Language
- List of Abbreviated References
- Index