Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1877-09-15

: ages causes us perhaps to imagil
that the idiOms are, for some reasC
or other we may not know wha
superior to our own. We see
them ourselves, or are taught by OF
professors to see, characteristics
/ beauty or force which we have n,
} yet discovered in our own languag
| for the simple reason that its wore
and idoms are so wrought into OF
; own modes of thought that we ia
to perceive them effectively, and
, is only by reflection that we can e
, innate them as we use our 0w
hands instinctively, without eve
thinking, perhaps, of their wonder
full mechanical adaptations. More
over, the habit of translation, praC
ticed at college, shows us our owl
language always at a disadvantage
For no sooner do we learn, indeed
to translate, that we begin to feel a
once the inadequacy of translation
We feel, in passage after passage c
man, that in turning it into Englisl
we must lose much not only of tn
melody and rhythm of the Origina
language, as especially in poetry
but also of the force, the point anC
the charm of the thoughts them
selves; and we are apt to ascribt
this to an inherent inferiority in tn,
English language, forgetting that i
lies in the very nature of all tranSa
tion, and little thinking how the
case would be if the problem were
reversed, and if any one of these
languages were called upon to ren.
der the masterpieces of English
poetry or of English prose. 1t is
for this reason too, probably, that
the most emphatic eulogiums upon
the superiority of the English langu-
age have come from foreign schOl-
ars; for they see effectively, and
estimate by comparison, what we
fail to realize because we do not
think of it; what we use indeed so
uncOnsciOusly because it is so per-
feet, as we breathe the pure air, or
gaze upon the blue sky of heaven.
To this statement of the character
of our mother tongue, of its claims
upon us, we will now add a few
hints as to its study.
We should study English then,
first, i1 its OlC11 GdiOn1. BY this we
mean that in the actual living langu-
age itself, in its forms and its usages,
we should seek for its Interpretation
and its laws. Every language is a
law unto itself; and in none is this
proposition more distinctly true
than in the English, for no language
has a more distinctively idi0matic
character. 1t must not be forgot
ten, as the fundamental axiom in
the study Of language, that the
language itself is the datum of the
problem this is the objective eX-
listing fact, or body of facts, which
it is the business of the inquirer to as
certain and to explain. Observe that
we say, to ascertain and to explain );
for the first step of the student in
any language, whether grammarian
or photographer, must be to ascer-
tain WHAT the language actually is.
This must precede all attempt at its
explanation; the nlateridt itself must
be known before it can be made the
basis Of any safe reasoning. Now
this is simply question of fact, to
be settled by usage alone. What
constitutes usage, in its legitimate
sense, we do not for the present in
quire, but insist simply upon the
fundamental proposition, that this
usage, once aScertained and eStab-
lished, as the language, and contains
the essence of all its principles and
laws. From this usage, as itself a
body of unimpeachable fact, the
grammarian or photographer must
seek to establish the principles and
laws of his science. And here only
it is that the second step in the pro-
cess, that of explanation, using the
term in its widest sense, can begin.
Whatever methods or analOgies may
now be employed, the facts of the
language alone can be the prime
data, of the reasoning.
From this view, the fundamental
office of the grammar and of the
dictionary is to record the language;
to explain it is only their secondary
office. They do not give laws to it
they receive their own laws from it.
There are its interpreters and
whatever they may add to its sim
pie facts, in the way of explanation
or theory, must be subject to these
facts themselves for their own eX-
planatiOn, and must stand or fall by
appeal to them alone. How far this
fundamental truth has been forgot
ten by writers upon language, and
what wrong has been done, especi-
ally to our mOther-tOngue, in cOnse-
quence of the adoption of other and
false methods of proceeding, we may
have occasion elsewhere to show.
A language, then, is something
actual and individual, supreme i'll
its own uSageS, and Self-determin-
ing in its own laws. To ascertain
these usages, and by them to set forth
these laws, is the prime business of
the grammarian and the leXicO-
Up to this point, the ques-
ton, in every case, is simply ques-
ton of fact. 3" USats ct jas ct norma
To classify and explain
these usages, group them by their
and refer them, if pOssi-
bic, their ultimate principles, is an
other and secondary matter. The
of procedure must be strict |
ly inductiVe, and no theory or prin-
cipIe must be set up which is not es-
tahlished by the facts of the langu-
age, or at least legitimately inferred
from them. This does not restrict |
the liberty of inquiry or reasoning
in matters of language: it only as
serts the limits beyond which such |
however strictly logical,
must practically be falIaciOus and
deceptive. How far it may be pos
5ible, in any given language, to eX-
plain its usages, or in other words
to construct its grammar or its leXi-
con, is quite another question. We |
are convinced, however, that 1t has
been a fundamental mistake, in |
many works upon language, to at
tempt to explain too much-in other
words to carry theory, upon princi-
pies of assumed uniformity, too far,
doing violence thereby to the very |
nature Of language itself, and i'm
pairing at once the value of gram
study and the predihility of |
its results,
We repeat, then, we should study
our mother tongue, first and chiefly,
in its OlCn idiOn1. The first step !
must be, to ascertain what its usages
are, and by fixing the limits of legit-
mate usage, to establish the idiOm
of the language itself. For this
idOn, which word weusein its broad |
est sense, as including single words |
as grammatical constructions, we .
must have all reverence; :; for it con- |
Il, -