Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

terms would not have been now found in their technical fenfes in their writings. And if a writer of this age, having reduced the art into a fyftem, had prefented the world with the firft Latin Grammar, and had given the fame names, verbum, articulus, to the fame things, his offence against pure latinity, or the pre-established good ufe of thofe words, would have been of the fame magnitude as that of the original Latin grammarians, and no more; the fame innovations in a language, living or dead, being of equal quality: yet the charge against the propriety of the terms ufed by fuch a writer, would be the fame in kind as that brought against the natural hiftorians; but it must have fallen to the ground-nor would it have been in degree lefs ftrong; for bolder extenfions in the fenfe of Latin terins, are not, that I recolJect, to be found in the Lexicon of our technical language. These faftidious grammatical exceptions are, in principle, exceptions both to the art and the philofophy of grammar. If the naturalifts err in this point, they err with the grammatical fathers (cum patribus).

"Secondly, What I have to fay about derivatives not ufed in Latin writers, will be contained in a fhort comment on a paffage in the Academic Questions of Cicero, where he afferts the rights and privileges of those who treat on philofophical fubjects in a language not yet enriched with proper terms, and exemplifies his principles in the formation of a new derivative, an authority from which I apprehend no appeal will be made. The tranflation of this paffage is as follows. The original is placed at the end of this article *.

"Varro. You will allow me the fame liberty which has always ⚫ been affumed by the Greeks, who

[ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small]
[ocr errors]

ed the new term Qualitas, to ex' prefs the fenfe of the Greek word Horns; which even among them is not a word of common ufe, but 'confined to the philofophers. In like manner, none of the terms of the logicians are found in the popular language; and the fame is true of the terms of almost all the arts: to new things new names musike given, or thofe of others transferred to them. If the Greeks take this liberty, 'who have cultivated the sciences for ages, how much stronger is the reafon it should be granted to us, in our first attempt to treat upon them!

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors][ocr errors]

"Cicero. It fems to me, that you will do a work of utility to the public, if you not only increase the flock of our ideas, which you have already done, but also that of our words.

"Varro. We fhall therefore • hazard the use of new words when neceffary, and by your authority.

[ocr errors]

"And where the fame neceffity, arifing from the fame fource, exifts, the fame liberty is to be taken. And as Cicero, on this point, is an unexceptionable authority, let us examine his practice, to fee to what degree it may be carried. The word Qualitas, derived from Quale, is now familiarized to the ear. The first boldness of this derivative is only perceived by reflection; but its

degree

degree will strike us more immediately, if we take the English words wehat, or fuch (as), which anfwer to the Latin prouominal adjective Quale, and add one of the fubftantive terminations [houd] or [nefs] to either, to make a philofophical term of it. 1 afk the fevere grammarians, who proteft against the clafs of new derivatives in the philofophical language of Linnæus, to produce among them a bolder example of the creation of

a new term.

"And by the fame authority, we may defend his impofing new fignifications on old words; for in a few Knes after the conclufion of the extract, there occurs a liberty of this kind, and as remarkable as the former; for Cicero there gives a new fenfe to the pronominal adjective Quale, in correfpondence to that of his new derivative Qualitas; ufing it fubftantively to fignify any being or thing, as compounded of fubftance and accident, or matter and qualities: Et ita effeci quæ appellant qualia; e quibus in omni natura cohærente, et continuata cum onmnibus fuis partibus, effectum * effe mundum.'

"It deferves to be remarked re

fpecting thefe innovations, that this affertion of the legitimacy of the practice in all like cafes is here put by Cicero into the mouth of Varro, the greatest critic and grammarian of the Auguftan age; who wrote on the Latin language, and addreffed his works to Cicero himself.

"Hence it appears, that philofophy is not reftrained to the ufe of the common terms of any language; nor, for the fame reafon, to thofe of the hiftorians, orators, dramatic writers, poets, &c. of that language, either feparately or conjointly: but, as every art has terms of its own, fo has every branch of science.

"Thus he who enriches
1997.

any

fcience with a number of new dif coveries, confers a fecond general benefit, by enriching the language in which he treats of them, by all fuch terms as fhall be requifite to do it in the beft manner.

[ocr errors]

6

"Cicero, repeating his new term quality, adds with great philofophi cal pleafantry, Faciamus tractando ufitatius hoc verbum, et tritius.' And it may be faid of the terms of natural hiftory, that our elegant claffical fcholars will find their afperities wear off very foon, if, by adding to their former acquifitions a knowledge of this new philofophy, they make themfelves practically verfed in the ufe of them. There may remain fome precifely defcriptive, which may be yet added; fome reformation may be wanted in those which may have been haftily adopt ed; and from them we may expect it.

"It is to be observed, that these arguments defend the liberty, not the licentioufnefs, of introducing new terms; and defend it upon the footing of neceffity only; and therefore extend that liberty no further than fuch neceffity actually ex

tends.

"I had thought to have finished here: but having made fo much use of the authority of the great ornament of the Roman forum, the fen timents of the elegant expofitor of our own laws on this fubject are not to be paffed by. Thefe, with a minute change to avoid the introduc. tion of freth matter, are as follows: This is a technical language calculated for eternal duration, and eafy to be apprehended both in present and future times: and on these accounts beft fuited to preferve those memorials which are intended to perpetuate [every difcovery in natural hiftory]. It is true indeed, that many of the terms of art with ' which

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

H

which it abounds, may, as Mr. • Selden obferves, give offence to 'fome grammatical and squeamish • ftomachs, who would rather choose to live in ignorance of things moft ufeful and important, than to have their delicate ears wounded by the • use of a word unknown to Cicero, Salluft, or the other writers of the •Auguftan age.'

"Cic. Op. omnia, Gronovii. Acad. Queft. L. 1.

“24. *** Dabitis enim profectò, ut in rebus inufitatis quod Græci ipfi faciunt, a quibus hæc jamdiu tractantur, utamur verbis interdum inauditis?

"25. Nos verò, inquit Atticus, Quin etiam Græcis licebit utere, cum voles, fi te Latina forte deficient. Bene fanè facis: fed ehitar ut Latinè loquar, nifi in hujus modi verbis, ut philofophiam, aut rhetori

cam, aut phyficam, aut dialecticam appellem, quibus, ut aliis multis, confuetudo jam utitur pro Latinis. Qualitates igitur appellavi, quas

ormas Græci vocant: quod ipfum apud Græcos non eit vulgi verbum, fed philofophorum, atque id in multis. Dialecticorum vero verba nulla funt publica; fuis utuntur. Et id quidem commune omnium ferè eft artium. Aut enim nova funt rerum novarum facienda nomina, aut ex aliis transferenda, quod fi Græci faciunt, qui in iis rebus tot jam fæcula verfantur, quanto id me gis nobis concedendum eft, qui hæc nunc primum tra&are conamur?

"26. Tu verò, inquam, Varro, bene etiam meriturus mihi videris, de tuis civibus, fi eos non modo copia rerum auxeris ut effecifti, fed etiam verborum. Audebimus ergo, inquit, novis verbis uti, te auctore.”**

OBSERVATIONS on the NATURE of the CHINESE LANGUAGE. [From SirGEORGE STAUNTON'S ACCOUNT of the EMBASSY to CHINA.]

feveral letters

"THE founds of bers, fuch as

in most alphabets,

B, D, R, and X, are utterly unknown in the Chinefe tongue. The organs of fpeech in a native of China are not in the habit of pronoun cing them. In endeavouring to utter one of thefe, another to which the fame organ has been habituated is generally founded: inftead of the letter R, the liquid L is ufually pronounced by a Chiuefe; who thus occafionally falls into ridiculous miftakes. A Chinese dealer in rice, for example, is fometimes heard to offer for fale what few perfons would be difpofed to purchase.

the tones and accents of words near

"The nice diftinctious between

ly refembling each other in found, but varying much in fenfe, require, no doubt, a nicety of ear to diftinguifli, and of vocal powers to render, them exactly. To fucceed in mak ing thofe diftinctions perfectly, a franger fhould begin to learn them at an early age, while his organs are flexible and acute. A material aid, however, towards taking each word in its proper fenfe is afforded often by the general context of the fentence in which they are used. An English reader, for example, will scarcely recollect, when in con

verfation,

verfation, he had any difficulty in determining whether the idea of fun (which fhines), or that of fon (obeying his father', was meant to be conveyed, though the words are not to be diftinguished in the pronunciation. Synonymous words are alfo very frequently introduced in Chinefe dialogue, as has been before obferved, to prevent any doubt a bout the intended fenfe. If, however, in an intricate difcuffion, any uncertainty fhould fill remain as to the meaning of a particular expreffion, recourfe is had to the ultimate criterion of tracing with the finger in the air, or otherwife, the form of the character, and thus afcertaining at once which was meant to be ex. preffed.

"The learner of Chinese is, be fides, not puzzled with many minute rules of grammar, conjugation, or declension. There is no neceffity of diftinguishing fubftantives, adjec. tives, or verbs: nor any accordance of gender, number, and cafe, in a Chinese fentence. That language furnishes, indeed, a practical proof, that the laborious ftructure, and intricate machinery of the Greek and Arabic tongues, are by no means neceffary either for a complete communication on all the bufi nefs of life, or even the grace of elocution, or to the harmony of verfe. The beginning or end of words is not altered, as it is in the Greek verb alone, in above one thousand inftances, by the times of performing the action meant to be expreffed, or the cafes in which the things mentioned are intended to be placed. A very few particles denote the paft, the prefent, and the future; nor are thofe auxiliaries employed when the intended time may be otherwife inferred with certainty. A Chinese who means to declare his intention of departing to-morrow,

never fays that he will depart tomorrow; because the expreffion of the morrow is fufficient to afcertain that his departure must be future. The plural number is marked by the addition of a word, without which the fingular always is impli ed. Neither the memory nor the organs of fpeech are burthened with the pronunciation of more founds to exprefs ideas, than are abfolutely neceflary to mark their difference. The language is entirely monofyilabic. A fingle fyllable always expreffes a complete idea. Each fyllable may be founded by an European confonant preceding a vowel, fometimes followed by a liquid. Such an order of words prevents the harfhnefs of fucceeding confonants founding ill together; and renders the language as foft and harmonious as the Italian is felt to be, from the rarity of confonants, and the frequency of its vowel terminations.

"The first founds emitted probably by man, were exclamations confifting of fingle founds, or monofyllables. The names, or founds, by which men may be firft fuppofed to have diftinguished other animals, when occafion offered to defignate them in their abfence, were at tempts at an imitation of the founds peculiar to thofe beings; and ftill, in Chinefe, the name, for example, of a cat, is a pretty near refembiance of its ufual cry. It occur red as naturally to endeavour, in fpeaking, to imitate the voice, if practicable, as it was in writing, to sketch a rude figure of the object of defcription. It is obfervable, that the radical words of moft languages, feparated from the fervile letters, which mark their inflections, ac cording to their conjugations, or de clenfions, are monofyllabic. A part of each radical word is retained in H2

-con

compofition to denote the meaning and etymology of the compound, which thus becomes polylyllabic; but the Chinese grammarians, aware of the inconvenier:ce refulting from the length and complication of founds, confined all their words, however fignificant of combined ideas, to fingle founds; and retain ed only, in writing, fome part, at leaft, of the form of each character denoting a fimple idea, in the compound characters conveying complex ideas.

"There is in the Chinese a certain order, or fettled fyntax in the fucceffion of words in the fame fentences; a fucceffion fixed by cuftom, differently in different languages, but founded on no rule or natural order of ideas, as has been fometimes fuppofed; for though a fen ence confifts of feveral ideas, to be rendered by feveral words, thefe ideas all exift and are connected together in the fame inftant: forming a picture, or image, every part of which is conceived at once. The formation of Chinese sentences is often the fimplest and moft artlefs poffible, and fuch as may naturally have occurred at the origin or fociety. To interrogate, for example, is often, at leaft, to require the flution of a queftion, whether the fubject of doubt be in a particular way, or the contrary; and accordingly, a Chinefe inquiring about his friend's health, will fometimes fay kou, poo hou? The literal meaning of which is, well, not well? A fimple character, repented, stands fometimes for more than one of the objects, which, fingly, it denotes; and fometimes for a collective quantity of the fame thing. The character of moo, fingly, is a tree; repeated, is a thicket; and tripled, is a fo

reft.

[ocr errors]

"In Chinese, there are fcarcely fifteen hundred diftin&t founds. In

the written language, there are at leaft eighty thousand characters, or different forms of letters; which number divided by the first, gives nearly fifty fenfes, or characters, upon an average, to every found expreffed; a difproportion, however, that gives more the appearance, than the reality, of equivocation and uncertainty to the oral language of the Chinese. Johnfon's English Dictionary affords inftances of words taken in upwards of one hundred different fenfes, without any doubt being thereby felt in English con verfation; where, indeed, if there were, no recourfe can be had for afcertaining its precife fenfe, as in the Chinese, to the form of the written character peculiar to each sense in which the word is received.

"The number of words in any language, or at least of fenfes in which each word is understood, muft depend chiefly on the ftate of civilization to which the people that ufe it are arrived; and in fome degree alfo, on the population of the country, and on the arts flourishing among them. It is not furprifing, therefore, that the Chinese dictionary fhould contain at leaft eighty thoufand characters. Perhaps if every fenfe in which an English term is foneti:nes received, were confidered as a diftinct word, and the vaft variety of those employed in the different arts and occupations of life were taken into the account, the number would not be much fewer than that of the Chinese.

"The characters of the Chinefe language were originally traced, in most inftances, with a view to exprefs either real images, or the le gorical figns of ideas; a circle, or example, for the fun, and a crefcent for the moon. A man was repre fented by an erect figure, with lines to mark the extremities. It was evi dent that the difficulty and tediouf

neís

[merged small][ocr errors]
« ZurückWeiter »