BOOK III
Of Words
Chapter I
Of Words or Language in General
1. Man fitted to form articulate sounds. God, having designed man
for a sociable creature, made him not only with an inclination, and
under a necessity to have fellowship with those of his own kind, but
furnished him also with language, which was to be the great instrument
and common tie of society. Man, therefore, had by nature his organs so
fashioned, as to be fit to frame articulate sounds, which we call
words. But this was not enough to produce language; for parrots, and
several other birds, will be taught to make articulate sounds distinct
enough, which yet by no means are capable of language.
2. To use these sounds as signs of ideas. Besides articulate sounds,
therefore, it was further necessary that he should be able to use
these sounds as signs of internal conceptions; and to make them
stand as marks for the ideas within his own mind, whereby they might
be made known to others, and the thoughts of men's minds be conveyed
from one to another.
3. To make them general signs. But neither was this sufficient to
make words so useful as they ought to be. It is not enough for the
perfection of language, that sounds can be made signs of ideas, unless
those signs can be so made use of as to comprehend several
particular things: for the multiplication of words would have
perplexed their use, had every particular thing need of a distinct
name to be signified by.
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