A Treatise on Language: Or, The Relation which Words Bear to Things, in Four Parts

"In 1828 the following work was first published. It was entitled "The Philosophy of Human Knowledge, or, A Treatise on Language;" and was the first part of a series of experimental investigations which were to include language, physical actions, thoughts, and feelings. The publication of 1828 was limited to the investigation of language; and as the present publication possesses the same limitation, and the other topics, though in progress, may never be completed, the first half of the original title is omitted, and the present publication is designated "A Treatise on Language." The form of lectures to which the preceding work was subjected, has been retained as a means of lessening the natural wearisomeness of instruction. In other respects, the work has been newly arranged and simplified. The present edition contains also much that is not in the former; yet the lectures are still little more than heads of discourses. They are sufficient to indicate my views of language; while persons who shall accord with me in these views, will readily discover new illustrations of the rules which I have given, and new rules for verbal positions to which I have not adverted. Indeed, all that the book contains is the elucidation of but one precept: namely, to interpret language by nature"--Preface. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved).