Linguistics in General
Linguistics, or the broad science of language, seeks to ascertain the general principles which govern the multiform manifestations of energy throughout language. The more special aim of this science is to render intelligible the affinities between different tongues. It does not restrict its inquiries to any epoch or family group of speech. It is as much interested in an obscure idiom of a savage tongue as it is in the most polished period of classic utterance. The decaying and archaic forms of speech comprise a field as fecund as that of the younger, virile growths. In a word, linguistics is concerned to its full limits with all forms of expression common to language past and present. It can not neglect the history of language in general if it would discover the history of its families. One’s mother-tongue is not actually known until one has formed some sort of acquaintance with related tongues. Something should be known of the universal forces engaged in the phenomena of language. The study prom-
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