LANGUAGE, Science of. Language in its broadest sense is any means of expressing thought. The cries of the lower animals are language in so far as they give expression to their state of mind, there is a language of flowers and so on. The present article deals with only one form of language, i.e., human speech. The Science of Language in this nar rower sense (also called Linguistics) comprises three branches: (I) General Linguistics; (2) Comparative Philology; (3) Special Grammar. The object of the General Linguistic is to ascer min the fundamental laws and characteristics of the language processes by the examination and comparison of all the languages available for this purpose. This branch interprets the phe nomena observed in the light of the known laws of psychology, physiology and physics. It lays the foundations for all the branches of lan guage study. Comparative Philology has a nar rower field, being limited to the comparison of languages of kindred origin. Its purpose is to determine the genetic relationships between such languages. Examples are Indo-European Comparative Philology, Comparative Philology of the Bantu languages, of the Semitic lan guages, etc. Special Grammar is of two types, historical and systematic. The latter offers a systematic classification and description of the forms and usages of any given language or dialect at some definite period of its life, e.g, the grammar of Modern English, of Chaucer's English, of Hellenistic Greek. Historical gram mar aims to explain the development of a given language from generation to generation.
Description of the Language Processes.— It is customary to define language as articulate sounds expressive of ideas. While such a definition may satisfy the popular curiosity, it is extremely inadequate. As a matter of fact, language is a complex series or group of nerv ous, muscular and physical processes. It is a well-known fact that the nervous system is made up of a great many groups of nerve cells. Each group performs some special function. For example, one part of the brain receives the impressions from the eye, another from the ear and so on. In particular from one area on
each side of the brain run fibres which reach either directly or indirectly (by relays) all the muscles of the body. When we wish' to give utterance to an idea, 'We set up (in some way not fully understood) a nervous activity in that portion of this (motor area* which controls the muscles that must be moved in order to produce the required sounds. Physiologists assume that this activity consists of chemical activity in the nerve cells. Reaching the muscle this nervous activity sets up what we will designate as (1) the first stage of the speech process, i.e., a chemical activity in the muscle cells and the consequent movement (shortening and thicken ing) of the muscle. The moving muscle drags with it the bones and other tissues attached to it. Practically all the muscles of the body from the hips upward to the level of the ears are employed in speech. Those of the abdomen and chest control the stream of breath; those of the larynx control the production of musical tones; those of the head and neck control the move ments of the jaws, tongue, lips, etc., necessary to the modification of musical tones and the Production 'of capsonantat noises.
.These movements initiate (2) the second stage, i.e.; they set the air particles of the breath into rapid oscillation. These air vibrations, the physical stage of the speech process, are propa gated in accordance with the laws of physics in all directions and thus impinge upon the ear drums of the listener. Propagated thence to the inner ear they there act upon appropriate sense organs and through them stimulate the tips of the auditory nerves. The nervous process thus set up is propagated along the nerVe, like fire along a fuse, till it reaches the brain, where it initiates (3) the third stage, i.e., sensations of sound, which awaken in the mind of the listener ideas and emotions similar to but never identical with the ideas and emotions which started this train of processes in the mind of the speaker.