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On the Origin of Language
This volume combines Rousseau's essay on the origin of diverse languages with Herder's essay on the genesis of the faculty of speech. Rousseau's essay is important to semiotics and critical theory, as it plays a central role in Jacques Derrida's book Of Grammatology, and both essays are valuable historical and philosophical documents.
186 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1866
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About the author
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
4,715 books2,953 followersGenevan philosopher and writer Jean Jacques Rousseau held that society usually corrupts the essentially good individual; his works include
The Social Contract
and
Émile
(both 1762).
This important figure in the history contributed to political and moral psychology and influenced later thinkers. Own firmly negative view saw the post-hoc rationalizers of self-interest, apologists for various forms of tyranny, as playing a role in the modern alienation from natural impulse of humanity to compassion. The concern to find a way of preserving human freedom in a world of increasingly dependence for the satisfaction of their needs dominates work. This concerns a material dimension and a more important psychological dimensions. Rousseau a fact that in the modern world, humans come to derive their very sense of self from the opinions as corrosive of freedom and destructive of authenticity. In maturity, he principally explores the first political route, aimed at constructing institutions that allow for the co-existence of equal sovereign citizens in a community; the second route to achieving and protecting freedom, a project for child development and education, fosters autonomy and avoids the development of the most destructive forms of self-interest. Rousseau thinks or the possible co-existence of humans in relations of equality and freedom despite his consistent and overwhelming pessimism that humanity will escape from a dystopia of alienation, oppression, and unfreedom. In addition to contributions, Rousseau acted as a composer, a music theorist, the pioneer of modern autobiography, a novelist, and a botanist. Appreciation of the wonders of nature and his stress on the importance of emotion made Rousseau an influence on and anticipator of the romantic movement. To a very large extent, the interests and concerns that mark his work also inform these other activities, and contributions of Rousseau in ostensibly other fields often serve to illuminate his commitments and arguments.
This important figure in the history contributed to political and moral psychology and influenced later thinkers. Own firmly negative view saw the post-hoc rationalizers of self-interest, apologists for various forms of tyranny, as playing a role in the modern alienation from natural impulse of humanity to compassion. The concern to find a way of preserving human freedom in a world of increasingly dependence for the satisfaction of their needs dominates work. This concerns a material dimension and a more important psychological dimensions. Rousseau a fact that in the modern world, humans come to derive their very sense of self from the opinions as corrosive of freedom and destructive of authenticity. In maturity, he principally explores the first political route, aimed at constructing institutions that allow for the co-existence of equal sovereign citizens in a community; the second route to achieving and protecting freedom, a project for child development and education, fosters autonomy and avoids the development of the most destructive forms of self-interest. Rousseau thinks or the possible co-existence of humans in relations of equality and freedom despite his consistent and overwhelming pessimism that humanity will escape from a dystopia of alienation, oppression, and unfreedom. In addition to contributions, Rousseau acted as a composer, a music theorist, the pioneer of modern autobiography, a novelist, and a botanist. Appreciation of the wonders of nature and his stress on the importance of emotion made Rousseau an influence on and anticipator of the romantic movement. To a very large extent, the interests and concerns that mark his work also inform these other activities, and contributions of Rousseau in ostensibly other fields often serve to illuminate his commitments and arguments.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
July 19, 2014
A short easy read, and one that offers a highly original conception of how language developed. Rousseau's observation that written language and spoken language are two separate animals seems right on the dot, but the real brilliance of this piece is how he is capable of situating this observation in a larger framework that shows how the transition to written language signifies a change in economic and political power dynamics and how it can lead to a sort of social/cultural malaise that would really only start to get examined a few centuries later. I guess the only thing I didn't like about it was his over-idealization of pre-agrarian society, which really bugged the hell out of me. That being said, its a strong piece and its not hard to see why its been so influential over the years. If nothing else, its pretty damn funny to listen to a Frenchmen explain why he is so disgusted with his own language.
July 30, 2014
هو يمنحك تساؤلات بقدرِ مافي جعبتك من أسئلة،
ندّد روسو بكل حضارة تسلب الإنسان أصالة طبعه فنادى بأعلى صوته أن الابتعاد عن الطبيعة
الأولى منذر بفساد المجتمع البشري. أفلهذا كتب محاولته " في أصل اللغات " ؟ *
October 7, 2021
Despite having some interesting bits, i found this book very boring overall.
February 18, 2016
Rousseau is c r a z y
July 14, 2019
I liked the pairing of these two essays. Herder's is strikingly opposed to Rousseau's; the latter holds that language emerges from an overflow of human emotions, whether of joy, pain, or pity. Herder, on the other hand, holds that language emerges from the ability to reflect from our immediate, emotional experiences, and to exercise our rational freedom in extracting meaning or concepts from those.
In more detail, Herder argues that the human capacity for language is inseparable from our capacity for reflection; and these two capacities amount to our reason, or ability to form and manipulate concepts, and thereby produce and evaluate knowledge. All non-human animals are compelled to constantly act according to their needs and desires. But humans are able to reflect on our situations. Out of the multitudes of information available in a perceptual moment, in reflection, we are able to select out a single aspect, focus on this, and allow it to come to stand for the original situation of which it was part. Herder essentially proposes that linguistic signs originate from our capacity to allow salient distinguishing features of objects to symbolize those objects as a whole.
We select phonemes as audible correlates of those features (Herder has an interesting although dubious idea that an intuitive sort of synesthesia gives us these cross-sensory correlations), and language emerges from there. Because language is based on concept formation -- the selection of salient features of objects used to define them -- a given community's language will reflect the history, mythology, and lifestyle of that community.
I think Herder's core idea might seem commonsensical today, but only because it turned out to be fundamentally true. This core idea shows up around page 80, and is fully conveyed over 5-10 pages. The rest of the essay seems ridiculous, idiosyncratic, or daringly creative, from our contemporary perspective, and can be skipped or skimmed, if a reader does not have strong historical interests. For me, Rousseau's essay was pretty much entirely only readable for historical interests.
I ended up reading these essays after reading Charles Taylor's essays (chapters 9 and 10 in his collection) that proposes a research agenda for the phenomenology of language. Taylor draws on and vastly expands on Herder. I'd recommend Herder and Taylor to readers interested in 'humanistic' theories of language (i.e., theories that do not focus on the structural aspects of language, which are often the focus of linguistics and analytic philosophy of language).
In more detail, Herder argues that the human capacity for language is inseparable from our capacity for reflection; and these two capacities amount to our reason, or ability to form and manipulate concepts, and thereby produce and evaluate knowledge. All non-human animals are compelled to constantly act according to their needs and desires. But humans are able to reflect on our situations. Out of the multitudes of information available in a perceptual moment, in reflection, we are able to select out a single aspect, focus on this, and allow it to come to stand for the original situation of which it was part. Herder essentially proposes that linguistic signs originate from our capacity to allow salient distinguishing features of objects to symbolize those objects as a whole.
We select phonemes as audible correlates of those features (Herder has an interesting although dubious idea that an intuitive sort of synesthesia gives us these cross-sensory correlations), and language emerges from there. Because language is based on concept formation -- the selection of salient features of objects used to define them -- a given community's language will reflect the history, mythology, and lifestyle of that community.
I think Herder's core idea might seem commonsensical today, but only because it turned out to be fundamentally true. This core idea shows up around page 80, and is fully conveyed over 5-10 pages. The rest of the essay seems ridiculous, idiosyncratic, or daringly creative, from our contemporary perspective, and can be skipped or skimmed, if a reader does not have strong historical interests. For me, Rousseau's essay was pretty much entirely only readable for historical interests.
I ended up reading these essays after reading Charles Taylor's essays (chapters 9 and 10 in his collection) that proposes a research agenda for the phenomenology of language. Taylor draws on and vastly expands on Herder. I'd recommend Herder and Taylor to readers interested in 'humanistic' theories of language (i.e., theories that do not focus on the structural aspects of language, which are often the focus of linguistics and analytic philosophy of language).
January 5, 2024
Title: No se empezó por razonar sino por sentir.
Este no es un texto lingüístico al uso, es un ensayo donde se explora el porqué del lenguaje, más que sus formas. Se me quedó no obstante que a medida que las necesidades crecen, que los asuntos se complican, que las luces se desarrollan, la lengua cambia de carácter; se hace más exacta y menos apasionada. Qué la primera manera de escribir no consistía en pintar los sonidos sino los objetos mismos. (La evolución son las palabras que representan figuras, sonidos, etc. Y no figuras que representan figuras). Me parece que se escribe de izquierda a derecha porque la mayoría de la gente es diestra. La falsedad de los acentos: Quien crea que se puede sustituir el acento por los acentos cae en un engaño; sólo se inventan los acentos cuando el acento ya se ha perdido. Hay más: creemos tener acentos en nuestra lengua, y no los tenemos en lo absoluto: nuestros supuestos acentos sólo son vocales o signos de cantidad: no señalan ninguna variedad de sonidos. La prueba está en que esos acentos se transmiten por medio de intervalos desiguales o por medio de modificaciones de los labios, de la lengua o del paladar, procesos todos que producen la diversidad de los sonidos. Y la música como vía de los sentires: Las primeras historias, las primeras arengas, las primeras leyes fueron en verso: la poesía fue encontrada antes que la prosa; así debió ser, ya que las pasiones hablaron antes qué la razón. Sucedió lo mismo con la música: no hubo primero otra música que la melodía, ni otra melodía que el sonido variado de la palabra; los acentos formaban el canto, las cantidades daban la medida, y se hablaba tanto mediante los sonidos y mediante el ritmo como mediante la articulación y la voz. Decir y cantar eran antiguamente lo mismo, dice Estrabón; lo que demuestra, añade, que la poesía es la fuente de la elocuencia. Y de otra verdad que estoy completamente de acuerdo: Todos los hombres del universo experimentarán placer al escucha sonidos bellos; pero si ese placer no se ve animado por inflexiones melodiosas que les sean familiares, no será delicioso, no se trocará en voluptuosidad.
Stars 3.6
Este no es un texto lingüístico al uso, es un ensayo donde se explora el porqué del lenguaje, más que sus formas. Se me quedó no obstante que a medida que las necesidades crecen, que los asuntos se complican, que las luces se desarrollan, la lengua cambia de carácter; se hace más exacta y menos apasionada. Qué la primera manera de escribir no consistía en pintar los sonidos sino los objetos mismos. (La evolución son las palabras que representan figuras, sonidos, etc. Y no figuras que representan figuras). Me parece que se escribe de izquierda a derecha porque la mayoría de la gente es diestra. La falsedad de los acentos: Quien crea que se puede sustituir el acento por los acentos cae en un engaño; sólo se inventan los acentos cuando el acento ya se ha perdido. Hay más: creemos tener acentos en nuestra lengua, y no los tenemos en lo absoluto: nuestros supuestos acentos sólo son vocales o signos de cantidad: no señalan ninguna variedad de sonidos. La prueba está en que esos acentos se transmiten por medio de intervalos desiguales o por medio de modificaciones de los labios, de la lengua o del paladar, procesos todos que producen la diversidad de los sonidos. Y la música como vía de los sentires: Las primeras historias, las primeras arengas, las primeras leyes fueron en verso: la poesía fue encontrada antes que la prosa; así debió ser, ya que las pasiones hablaron antes qué la razón. Sucedió lo mismo con la música: no hubo primero otra música que la melodía, ni otra melodía que el sonido variado de la palabra; los acentos formaban el canto, las cantidades daban la medida, y se hablaba tanto mediante los sonidos y mediante el ritmo como mediante la articulación y la voz. Decir y cantar eran antiguamente lo mismo, dice Estrabón; lo que demuestra, añade, que la poesía es la fuente de la elocuencia. Y de otra verdad que estoy completamente de acuerdo: Todos los hombres del universo experimentarán placer al escucha sonidos bellos; pero si ese placer no se ve animado por inflexiones melodiosas que les sean familiares, no será delicioso, no se trocará en voluptuosidad.
Stars 3.6
August 11, 2019
Consisting of two essays on the origin of language, one by Frenchman Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the other by pre-Romantic German Johan Gottfried Herder, "On the Origin of Language: Two Essays" can be viewed as both a relic from the 18th century past and as a reminder of the genius of these two seminal thinkers. Out of the two pieces, however, it is the Herder essay that best serves its stated purpose of presenting in a cogent form a theory about the human sources of the language instinct. For, in prose far from being opaque and obscure, Herder outlines a theory which, according to the tome's Afterward, is seen as accurate in its general parameters even in light of today's accepted truths on the subject. So, while Rousseau's piece touches upon tangential subjects like music's forms and nature, the Herder essay, for me at least, is far superior. Having given that caveat, one must state that both essays, as portraits of great minds at work on an interesting and thought-provoking subject, are "must" reads for interested readers. A short yet essential "take" on the subject, these two essays are rewarding and compelling reads!
November 21, 2023
This is a great edition of these two essays on the origin of language(s). The editorial apparatus is surprisingly great despite its brevity and (slight) age.
I read this for the Rousseau – any reading of the Second Discourse (on the origins of social inequality) should be supplemented by a reading of this essay.
I was also shocked that my arcane and (so I thought) practically obsolete knowledge of the intricacies of musical temperament found immediate use in reading this text. That said, if that isn't something you possess, don't worry – it won't seriously impact your reading of it lol
I read this for the Rousseau – any reading of the Second Discourse (on the origins of social inequality) should be supplemented by a reading of this essay.
I was also shocked that my arcane and (so I thought) practically obsolete knowledge of the intricacies of musical temperament found immediate use in reading this text. That said, if that isn't something you possess, don't worry – it won't seriously impact your reading of it lol
September 20, 2017
Read a good chunk of Rousseau's Essay as a precursor to Derrida's "Of Grammatology"
November 13, 2018
Fair translation. Still... Its on Rousseau. What else??
March 20, 2020
Rousseau has interesting ideas and linguistics actually has little to deny them, and science doesn't try to deny them for now actually. Comparing Rousseau with Chomsky gave me an awareness of linguistics still has a long way to answer lots of questions. I read language philosophy at its finest in that book.
July 20, 2013
another brilliant book to continue the language theme. this book is a collection of 2 essays. one by rousseau and one by herder (who some say was partially goethe's inspiration). the book is about the orgin of language obviously. but the come from slightly different angles. one of the main differences i took out of the book was tha rousseau believed in the emotional birth of language (man sees lion for first time and shits himself and those emotions bring out a cry which then becomes the word of lion - bad example i know) herder believed in the resoned approach to word creation. (man sees attacking thing running at him and associates a word with the VERB - ataching thing from which you then get the noun) there were many other similarities and differences but overall a very thought provoking book.
November 6, 2013
لم يكن مقنعاً كثيراً.
هنالك كتب أفضل بكثير تتحدث عن أصل اللغات :)
هنالك كتب أفضل بكثير تتحدث عن أصل اللغات :)
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November 19, 2021For the future readers of this book:
Consider your experience as an assessment of a worthwhile thought exercise; almost half of this is not valid - currently and for my reality - didacticism.
Consider your experience as an assessment of a worthwhile thought exercise; almost half of this is not valid - currently and for my reality - didacticism.
October 14, 2021
A nice little book with some interesting speculating about the origin and nature of language, as well as some aesthetics.
May 18, 2024
ufuk açıcı, kesinlikle okunmasi gereken bi eser. özellikle kuran, araplar ve incil hakkındaki tespitleri muhteşem
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews