LB462 伊津

(P.462 Para. 2 - P.462 Para. 1)


It comes about after reflexive body movements and entered man's consciousness, and after the association of perceptions with sounds. Language had not been adequatedly understood in the past, because it had been regarded solely as means of communication. It had been incorrectly assumed that man had images, thoughts and the additional ability to express these in terms of sounds. Images and thoughts were themselves based on language.

“We see now…how everything man attains at a higher level than animal consciousness and intuitions, is gained by way of language…Language is self-awareness, that is, understanding oneself… as one is understood by another. One understand oneself: that is the beginning of language”[92].
Steinthal’s work had a profound influence on the well-known internist and professor of medicine in Strasbourg, Adolf Kussmaul(1822-1902) who devoted the first fifteen chapters of his book ”On the Pathology of Language,” to define and describe languages as such. “Language may refer to the physical –mental act of the expression of thoughts, or to that which is expressed. To attempt the understanding of language as an act of expression, is the task of physiology and psychology. ”
His description of the development of language in children is remarkably perceptive: Children are born with a sense of language, an irresistible drive to express themselves. The babbling of infants is a spontaneous reflex activity, as are the uncoordinated movements of their limbs. As the child grows, it begins to listen, to differentiate sounds and to imitate words. This is not a simple process, some words the child understands without imitating them, others it imitates without understanding their meaning. In general terms, language development shows a gradual replacement of “the natural language of the child”(babbling), by the traditional language of the nation. As this is accomplished, language is removed from the spontaneous sphere and comes under the rule of will and habits. Full development of language is equivalent to expression of (conceptualized) thoughts. Once this as occurred, the child has acquired the ability to elaborate the object images connected with words into concepts [93].
Language poses a difficult problem in that it develops “without consciousness or purpose, although (later) we speak consciously and purposefully.” This need not surprise us, for most neural and mental activity is predominantly unconscious. Kussmaul thought that it would be premature to discuss language in purely physiological terms, as long as physiology was just beginning to decide on its experimental methods. It would be just as impossible to ascribe the complex function of language to simple speech center as to define a simple center of the soul [94]. 19Kussmaul’s work is remarkable for its psychological insight and its lucid elaborations on the nature of language and the problem it poses. He judged correctly the precocity of any physiological formulation and the futility of a simple hypothetical speech center where language could be localized.



[92] Steinthal, Heyman, Einleitung in die Psychologie und Sprachwissenschaft. Duemmler, Berlin, 1871, pp.42, 82-85, 369-370, 385-86

[94]Kussmaul, A., op. cit, pp.33, 110, 114, 127