Gray’s Foundations of Language

Abstract

In the interpretation of his data, neglect of the structural method cuts the linguist off from the organization of all non-historical facts. The author sees only the historical interpretation: “It becomes necessary to be thoroughly versed in the history of each language before one can render a scientific judgement upon any of the phenomena which it presents” (2); the “method of procedure [of linguistics] is essentially the same as in investigation of any problem of history” (4). To get the real meaning of words, therefore, we must know not only how they are used, but also their history: “If the student of literature... is ignorant of the historical development of words and their arrangements,... he sunders himself from that which will give him a keener appreciation of literature” (142). And of the syntax of a language at various periods: “The later period is seldom fully intelligible without knowledge of the earlier” (226). Such appeals to history are beside the point, since the meaning of forms and of their arrangements is necessarily given by a complete description of how they are used, i. e. of what they mean to the people who use them.