Language and Society in the Late Eighteenth Century

Formigari, Lia

doi:10.2307/2708762

Cited by 12 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…The Enlightenment (particularly Condillac) introduced a naturalistic view, according to which language originates from natural cries and gestures, and initially only includes monosyllables. This view was part of a primitivism that highlighted the positive aspect of "spontaneity" and "naturalness", but intellectual writing on the origin of language often did not embrace this version, partly because these theories established a strong connection between men and animals, and partly because they created too many problems of compatibility with a religious worldview (Formigari 1974;Leonard 1929, p. 19 ff.). These intellectuals opposed the traditional view, which saw language as God's gift to Adam, and therefore as already complete and perfect from the start, like all things created.…”

Section: Reflexes On Meta-linguistic Discoursementioning

confidence: 99%

“Good Savage” vs. “Bad Savage”. Discourse and Counter-Discourse on Primitive Language as a Reflex of English Colonialism

Mazzon

2021

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In the ideological construction of colonialism and, more widely, of any hierarchy of human communities, a crucial role is played by discourse on language. English nationalism and imperialism, in particular, developed extensive argumentations on language as an interpretation of the encounter with the other, on the basis of internal cultural developments that assigned to language the role of social discriminator. The paper investigates a strand of such argumentations during the period from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century: the concept of “primitive” languages, described in a positive or, more often, in a negative light. The former arguments employ tones related to the idea of the “good savage” and stand in connection with narratives on the “language of Adam” and of the “Welsh Indians”, the latter uses a rhetoric extolling “progress” and “civilization” against the “immaturity” and “backwardness” of primitive languages, a perspective that was later to influence Darwinism.

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Section: Reflexes On Meta-linguistic Discoursementioning

confidence: 99%

“Good Savage” vs. “Bad Savage”. Discourse and Counter-Discourse on Primitive Language as a Reflex of English Colonialism

Mazzon

2021

Topoi

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“…Research carried out in recent years has rightly stressed the intimate connection in eighteenth century thought between language and mind on the one hand, and language and society on the other (Aarsleff, 1974(Aarsleff, , 1982Formigari 1974;Viertel, 1966). An aspect that deserves more attention than it has received so far concerns the epistemology underlying the pseudo-historical accounts usually presented as theories of the origin and development of language.…”

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confidence: 99%