Sentence:  These narratives of coarse action and crude <WSD>language</WSD> appeared first in local newspapers , as a rule , and later found their way between book covers , though rarely into the planters ' libraries beside the morocco bound volumes of Horace , Mr. Addison , Mr. Pope , and Sir Walter Scott . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  a systematic means of communicating by the use of sounds or conventional symbols