Expressive English

by James Champlin Fernald

First Paragraph of Preface (no description found):

IT is often held to be a sufficient description or definition
of language to speak of it as "a medium of communication
among intelligent beings." Language is
that, indeed, and can never be less than that. But
that is its lowest office. The hen calls her brood by a
glad cluck to a fine bit of grain, or warns them by a
terrifying note of the sweep of a hawk. But she has
soon gone round the circle of ideas appropriate to her
species, and the "medium of communication" has no
place in the realm beyond, where for her and hers there
is nothing to communicate. In all human beings, however,
except the most degraded, there is a demand for
communication of thought and feeling from one to another
beyond what language as used by them can yet
convey. With all mental advance the reach and range
and delicacy of thought and feeling evermore outstrip
the capacity of words to utter them. Language is under
a constant impulsion to express ideas and emotions
which are still beyond its power.

488 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1918