1826 Nov. 5

Logic Language

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Ch. or '. Conjectural History

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Proper names come before common names. Common names are the result of generalization; every common name is the name of a general idea.

The pronoun I is a sort of common name, being applicable by any person as well as any other; the pronouns he, she, and it, more manifestly so. Languages, it is said, are in existence, in which there are no such pronominal names. Instead of I, the speaker employs his own name; instead of you, the name of the person spoken to; instead of he or she, that of the person spoken of. A different sign for the third person, when of a different sex, must have been a superior refinement; so likewise the difference between animals endued with the organs of sex, and other substances - whence the distinction between masculine and feminine, on the one hand, and neuter on the other.

Among the articles, the definite article the must have come first into use. The use of the indefinite article a implies the existence of the habit of abstraction - of generalization - an advance made in the art of logic.

On the occasion in which the original sole part of speech, the interjection, began to be resolved into the eight which we distinguish at present, the noun-substantive was probably the first to make its appearance, and that in the nominative case and singular number.

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