LANGUAGE ROD MENGHAM o~ = Fontana Press ‘An imprin of larperCollinsPublishersmsn Loon We 8 bey Rn 95 Pept a Ct Diy Gatowag he epolactnct pyre ie niveau Lib jp.) My Bra ee hey ih snp ash ipen la ty) St alee cs Np United Den Upp) Coy © Ro Meagan 199) steer Pan Geet in ogee No ti econ ye (iy ary ay me leon, mecha power ores tnt ‘pb nd ws ending ‘nding onsiesbseyen pence & CONTENTS Inroduction: Hearing voies,seing signs Jngeage, mind and brain 2 Graphic equalicr: language in siting and speech 4 The curse from Babel: the dissibation of languages 4 On parole: language in society '5 Worlds of words: univers grammar, encyclopaedic Aitonaree 1 Synax and ccuit 6 Ties ofthe tongue: language, mation, cas and ender 17 The debe to meaning: language and money 1 The cuse of babble: che nguage of dsuibuion Notes ibliogphy dex 1s ° 139 119 te isx ON PAROLE: LANGUAGE IN SOCIETY ‘reyes te wo oon ef he kr ips Greck war the language in which and for which the fs proper slphabe war develope, but ex now beter known For its lik with another beginning: the Sse rirings of modem politcal democracy. In i way, thi second great bogioning was n less important inthe history of nguage- tse than the devising ofan alphabetical system. The leging ‘democracy required new and more extensive wes of langage in order to regulate ioe the sudden and. dramatically incresed partcpation of large numbers of people in the pola process foregrounded the need for sherri! ils ‘Addison, che writen recaed came wo embody the will of the sate, since this could no longer be identified with any individual. Under the individual tyrant, the conduct of {government relied on he ising of ordes that must be ‘Sbeyed without discastion. Under democracy, every decision twa the outcome of protacted debate and negotiation, ‘mulitiag the development of tacticr of persion and deterrence Alla once the abiliey ro manipulate language ‘was of supreme importance, ‘As soon as his new poli cleure had ars, it pre- cipitatel rs of Eth the ably of words to mean whatTHE DESCENT OF LANGUAGE they sy. Ifpaliccal power now lay within each of hove who Jn neither insted ie nor taken throug fore of arms, Bat ‘who had begun to acquire by means of thee contol over language, lealy the motivation behind the deste wo become sn fletve publ vpeakor could be fee than totally dine ferested, Not everyone in the cizens Asembly taking part na debate would be animated bya love ofthe tanh. Those ‘who sought f persuade others 9 adopt thee own point of ‘iew might be working in hee oven Interest Se misc 3h iF rot more than, inthe interests ofthe majority the language they wed might be designed ro camouflage, rather than reveal, the th. The strength ofthe new democratic yom fmmediatly threatened to turn into fs grstesweaknes 3 ‘eakness that could easly have been exploited by those now being educated for the fit ime in the methods of 3 new school of philosophers ~ the Sophiss “The Sophiss, notorious for being ale, in Soeate phrase, to make the wort argument appeat te beter’ were ertaps ‘most dangerous becase they offered 2 serious phiosophieal validation of che idea that language ‘can appeal to truth, profess ruc, but not atin it" Bue in practical terms, the Influence was greater in the foes ofthe ton they offered «0 ambitiows young men from well