CHAPTER II.

THE PSYCHOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE IDEA OF SPEECH.

Germinal development of language.--How came words to be accepted as signs?--The inquiry not absurd.--What is a word?--Words only express the relations of things.--Connection of thought and speech.--Growth of individuality.--Theory of M. Steinthal.--Speech depends on the power of abstraction; the transformation of intuitions into ideas.--1. Impressions awoke sounds.--2. Sounds, by the association of ideas, recalled impressions.--3. Sounds became words by connecting the external object and the inward impression.--Influence of organism.--Earliest impressions expressed by the simplest sounds.--Influence of women.--Influences of climate. 34