Page:Mind (New Series) Volume 12.djvu/257

 WILHELM WUNDT, Volkerpsychologie. 243 be indissolubly combined, 1 and the former has no meaning apart from the latter. And when we remember how very defective is the articulation of the totally deaf, we feel inclined to assume that this connexion is universal. He assumes too that all these pro- cesses take place beneath the level of free ideas. This again is an extremely doubtful point. Moreover, had he borne in mind a number of other instances e.g., modern slang words which he does not quote, I doubt whether he could have maintained for a moment that the theory proposed was of universal validity. Nor does it really apply to a certain group of words which he discusses under the same head. Thus (p. 324) " Organs or actions which are connected with the production of vocal sounds, are often designated by means of words, in the articulation of which these organs or actions play a part ". Examples : Zunge, schliesfen, blasen, Mund, etc. ... To bring these cases under the concept of true indicative gestures is a really brilliant inspiration. Yet it seems clear that between such words and onomatopoeia direct or indirect there is all the difference which separates indicative from representative gestures. Wundt's treatment of natural sound- metaphors is also very suggestive. Chapter iv. discusses the laws of sound-change, in great detail, first continuous, then discontinuous change; and examines the various explanations that have been offered of Grimm's Law. We have space only to note the general features of his treatment. He will not compromise with intellectualism in any shape or form, and denounces the teleological and aesthetic explanations as un- psychological to the core. The main principle of his own psycho- physical interpretation is that in the variations of the rate of speech a vera causa of sound-change is to be found. He contends that the development of civilisation has been accompanied by a regular increase in this rate. He admits indeed that we can have no direct proof of this proposition, but so far at least as the Indo- Germanic languages are concerned, there are several indirect proofs : e.g., the lessening of the length and cumbrousness of the written sentence, the simplification of grammatical forms, and the analogy is instructive the increasing rapidity of musical tempo from say Scarlatti, or Mozart, to Beethoven and Brahms. Let an aspirata be pronounced faster and faster, and it tends to become a media ; similarly a media to become a tenuis. This inauguration of an ' experimental ' philology is assuredly interest- ing in the highest degree. It deserves, and it has already received, the attention of linguistic specialists. But, accepting Wundt's assumption that the rate of speech tends to increase as man advances in civilisation, how can the hypothesis explain at once 1 It is strange that he should overlook at this point a connexion which he fully recognises farther on. On p. 385 he speaks of the " umnittelban Verbindung der gehorten Sprachlaute mit den Articulationsempfin- dungen ".