[Download] "Are Prepositions Necessary? John Horne Tooke and the Origins of Words (Critical Essay)" by Verbatim " eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Are Prepositions Necessary? John Horne Tooke and the Origins of Words (Critical Essay)
- Author : Verbatim
- Release Date : January 22, 2008
- Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines,Books,Professional & Technical,Education,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 70 KB
Description
What do the words we use really mean? The eighteenth-century Englishman John Horne Tooke believed the best way to get at a word's essential meaning was to trace it back to its original source. He devoted a fat two-volume book to the subject--Epea Pteroenta ['winged words'], or the Diversions of Purley, published in 1786 and 1805. Although The Diversions of Purley, as it's usually known, has been languishing in the discard pile of intellectual history for over 150 years, the book caused a sensation when it first appeared. These days few people have heard of Horne Tooke, but for a time he was the most influential etymologist in England. Scholars as diverse as James Mill and Noah Webster enthusiastically supported his work. Horne Tooke's theory was that the original language consisted entirely of nouns and verbs. Other parts of speech--adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions, prepositions, pronouns--are merely abbreviations of underlying noun and verb sequences. They are shortened forms, invented for convenience as language became more complex. "Abbreviations," he writes, "are the wheels of language, the wings of Mercury." They allow people to speak their thoughts quickly and efficiently. Without them "though we might be dragged along . . . it would be with much difficulty. . . ."