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Origin of Language - Rousseau

Passions blinded the first human from accurately depicting what he saw for the very first time. He attributed terms for these strange, anomalous things that were exaggerated, hyperbolic because he had no precedent in which to base his thoughts upon. His feelings told him that this particular thing was an apple and he coined a term apple for it even when the thing was really in fact an orange. After he grows accustomed to this thing he then comes to realize, through reasoning, that it is really an orange and that a term representative of orange must be devised so to more accurately refer to this thing in the future and to others for clarity. The original term apple is not discarded, rather it remains in his lexicon to describe things which trigger the feeling that he felt when he first encountered the orange before realizing that it was really an apple. The figurative term apple is thus replaced by the proper term orange. This concept is demonstrated in his account of the first experience between two humans where the savage refers to the other man as a giant and comes to the realization that giant is not an accurate depiction of what the other man really was.(pg 13).
             A deeper analysis of Rousseau reveals that his claim that figurative language precedes proper language is grounded on a premise not primarily based on passions but on script. Language first came about in spoken form then later, recorded in writing. For Rousseau, the advent of script brought along the alteration of language, he writes "It(script) changes not the words but the spirit, substituting exactitude for expressiveness"(pg 21). The introduction of written language can elucidate how figurative language came before proper language. Rousseau says that "in writing, one is forced to use all the words according to their conventional meaning (proper language). But in speaking, one varies the meanings by varying one's tone of voice-(pg 22).


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