scholarly journals Language Origin and the Nature of Language: A Linguistic Interpretation of Dante's De Vulgari Eloquentia

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret Stong-Jensen
Keyword(s):  
Negative Answer ◽  
Species Specificity ◽  
Basic Relation ◽  
General Nature ◽  
Language Origin ◽  
Original Language ◽  
Sociological Factors ◽  
Origin Of Language ◽  
Unique Nature ◽  
De Vulgari Eloquentia

This interpretation of the De Vulgari Eloquentia is limited to Chapters I-VIII of Book One, which deal with language origin and the nature of language. I discuss four topics: (1) the species-specificity of language, (2) the possibility that thought may occur without language, (3) the form of language, and (4) the origin of language. In section (1), I show that Dante bases the species-specificity theme on the claim that man has a unique nature. I describe Dante's comparison of Man to the other beings in creation, the angels and the beasts. Dante concludes that Man shares reason with the angels, and emotions with the beasts, and differs from both in possessing individual differences. The implications that I draw for language concern semantic creativity, inter-translatability, and the basic relation between meaning and sound. A negative answer to (2), i.e., a conclusion that thought must take place by means of language, would imply that all thoughts can be expressed by language. Although I discuss this problem, I can draw no conclusions from the De Vulgari. In section (3), I discuss the three entities considered under form: names, semantic order, and syntactic order. I interpret Dante as saying that sociological factors are extra-linguistic, and that dialect differences are a result of social differences. Two interpretations emerge in my discussion of the origin of language. First, I give evidence that Dante presents the original language as equal in complexity to modern languages. Second, he implies that all languages have a common origin. Dante's De Vulgari Eloquentia treats of many ideas about language that are still problems for modern linguists. Since several of these concepts are couched in mythological terms, careful interpretation is required to make them explicit. In this paper I limit my discussion to Chapters I-VIII of Book One, which examine language origin and the general nature of language. While many of the ideas brought out in these chapters were also advanced by the contemporaries and predecessors of Dante, it is beyond the scope of this paper to trace these relationships.

L'origine del linguaggio puň attendere

PARADIGMI ◽  
2009 ◽  
pp. 163-172
Author(s):  
Francesco Ferretti
Keyword(s):  
Recent Literature ◽  
Empirical Treatment ◽  
Viable Alternative ◽  
Linguistic Variation ◽  
Cognitive Perspective ◽  
Evolutionary Theories ◽  
Language Origin ◽  
Origin Of Language ◽  
Naturalistic Approach ◽  
The Subject

- Starting from a discussion of Sylvain Auroux's new book (L'origine des langues... 2007), the paper develops a critique of the anti-naturalistic approach to the study of language. The rejection of the quest for language origin as a theory unsusceptible to scientific empirical treatment is an aspect of the idealistic consequences of anti-naturalist positions. A survey is presented of recent literature on the subject. In our opinion, evolutionary theories, revisited from a cognitive perspective, have radically changed the terms of the debate and made naturalism a viable alternative. Keywords: Evolutionism, FOXP2, Innateness, Linguistic variation, Nature-nurture debate, Origin of language.

scholarly journals INTERTEXTEMES OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE ORIGIN IN UKRAINIAN INTERNET TEXTS

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (9(77)) ◽  
pp. 98-101
Author(s):  
Maryana Zhuravel
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Preliminary Data ◽  
English Language ◽  
Internet Communication ◽  
Language Origin ◽  
Original Language ◽  
Input Method ◽  
Internet Users ◽  
Basic Concepts ◽  
Analysis System

The article is devoted to the analysis of the peculiarities of English language origin intertextemes use in Internet texts. Today, the intertextuality of Internet texts and genres has not been sufficiently researched. Approaches to the basic concepts of Internet linguistics, such as intertextuality, intertexteme, Internet communication, Internet linguistics and Internet genre are considered. A factual base of research that numbers 70 different intertextemes was created by means of the Alphateka content analysis system. Lingual material is analyzed by the most frequent markers of intertextuality (as they say in England; as they say in America; as English say; as Americans say; as the American... says; as the American... said; as British say; as they say in English etc). and their components, by authorship (R. Emerson, W. Churchill, L. Button, E. Hemingway, M. Thatcher, M. Monroe etc)., by the type of intertextemes (phraseologism, aphorism etc). and by input method in the text (they are conveyed in the original language, translated and transliterated). According to preliminary data, the most frequent intertexteme used in Internet texts is the statement to make someone’s day. It is concluded that Internet users mostly resort to citation when there is no Ukrainian equivalent or it is unknown to them; intertextemes occur in Ukrainian Internet texts both in the original language and in translation; authors and contributors can use transliterated units, which mostly give the text an ironic or humorous tone and enhance its emotionality. A single example of attributing authorship of an expression to another person has been revealed. The prospect of further researches is to identify and analyze the intertextemes transformations in Internet texts.

Chapter III: Rousseau (1712-72): the Old and the New

1980 ◽  
Vol 25 (S1) ◽  
pp. 12-13
Author(s):  
Richard Albert Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Education Society ◽  
Human Reason ◽  
Language Origin ◽  
Origin Of Language ◽  
The People ◽  
Divine Origin ◽  
Points Of View

During the middle ages, and up to the middle of the eighteenth century, the theologians’ mutilated version of the Genesis account of language origin, the divine-origin theory as it came to be called, was the theory held by Christian Europe. In the eighteenth century, however, the question of the probability of a natural rather than a supernatural origin of language began to stir in men’s minds. Rousseau’s essay on the Origin of Languages, about 1750, might be taken as the historical landmark which stands between the old and new points of view. This essay is in itself disappointing to one who is acquainted with Rousseau’s other works. His mental interests were practical rather than speculative, and he had no real convictions about the question of language as he had about education, society, and government. He was interested in language, and the changes in language, in relation to the practical needs of the people in social and national groups, and in diverse climatic conditions, rather than in the origin of language itself as an instrument of human reason. As a consequence his essay on the Origin of Languages—not ‘Language’—is hardly more than a series of disconnected reflections upon various aspects of languages, including a discussion of the relation of language to melody and harmony in music which occupies about one-third of the essay.

An Indian Dancer

Tempo ◽  
1948 ◽  
pp. 9-13
Author(s):  
W. H. Haddon Squire
Keyword(s):  
Strict Sense ◽  
Late Professor ◽  
Original Language ◽  
Emotional Effect ◽  
Ritual Dance

The late Professor Collingwood claimed that the dance is the mother of all languages in the sense that every kind or order of language (speech, gesture, and so forth) is an offshoot from an original language of total bodily gesture; a language which we all use, whether aware of it or not—even to stand perfectly still, no less than making a movement, is in the strict sense a gesture. He also relates the dance to the artist's language of form and shape. He asks us to imagine an artist who wants to reproduce the emotional effect of a ritual dance in which the dancers trace a pattern on the ground. The emotional effect of the dance depends not on any instantaneous posture, but on the traced pattern. Obviously, he concludes, the sensible thing would be to leave out the dancers altogether, and draw the pattern by itself.

Contribution of Demographics, Sociological Factors, and Media Usage to Verbal Aggressiveness

2014 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 92-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jack Glascock
Keyword(s):  
Emerging Adults ◽  
Peer Influence ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Rap Music ◽  
Verbal Aggression ◽  
Hierarchical Regression ◽  
Music Listening ◽  
Verbal Aggressiveness ◽  
Media Usage ◽  
Sociological Factors

Given the increasing relevance of verbal aggression in today’s society, the goal of this study was to assess the relative contributions of potential demographic and sociological factors. Emerging adults were surveyed, and the data were analyzed using correlations and hierarchical regression. While television viewing, video game playing, and music listening were positively correlated with verbal aggression, only (rap) music listening remained significant when demographic and other sociological influences were factored in. Overall, the hierarchical regression analysis found religiosity, parental and peer influence, quality of neighborhood, sex, and media usage (listening to rap music) to be significant contributors to verbal aggression among emerging adults. Male participants reported more verbally aggressive behavior than women, and African Americans reported more verbal aggression than White respondents. While media usage seems to play a significant, but relatively small role, other demographic and sociological factors such as gender, neighborhood, religion, peers, and parents appear to be major contributors in the development of verbal aggression among emerging adults.

Sociological Factors in Sexual Anxiety

1981 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 271-271
Author(s):  
Barry W. McCarthy
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Anxiety ◽  
Sociological Factors

The Coagulation Abnormalities in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

1968 ◽  
Vol 20 (03/04) ◽  
pp. 457-464 ◽  
Author(s):  
L Gonyea ◽  
R Herdman ◽  
R. A Bridges
Keyword(s):  
Systemic Lupus Erythematosus ◽  
Ammonium Sulfate ◽  
Lupus Erythematosus ◽  
Anticoagulant Activity ◽  
Species Specificity ◽  
Sensitive Assay ◽  
Systemic Lupus ◽  
Coagulation Abnormalities

SummaryAn anticoagulant occurring in 4 of 6 patients with SLE has been demonstrated by a sensitive assay utilizing an ammonium sulfate fraction of serum. The anticoagulant functions as an inhibitor of the activation of prothrombin. No species specificity was demonstrable. The inhibitor behaves clinically and chromatographically as an immunoglobulin, although an attempt to demonstrate directly the antibody nature of the inhibitor was not successful.A severe, apparently independent, decrease in the level of prothrombin was observed in the patient with hemorrhagic symptoms. In contrast to the anticoagulant activity, the low prothrombin has persisted during treatment.

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