This Natural language is the language of cries, laughter, and tones, the
language of the eyes, the nose, the mouth, the whole face; the language of
gestures and postures.
The child's cry tells of its wants; its sob, of grief; its scream, of pain;
its laugh, of delight. The boy raises his eyebrows in surprise and his nose
in disgust, leans forward in expectation, draws back in fear, makes a fist
in anger, and calls or drives away his dog simply by the tone in which he
speaks.
But feelings and desires are not the only things we wish to communicate.
Early in life we begin to acquire knowledge and learn to think, and then we
feel the need of a better language.
Suppose, for instance, you have formed an idea of a day; could you express
this by a tone, a look, or a gesture?
If you wish to tell me the fact that _yesterday was cloudy_, or that _the
days are shorter in winter than in summer_, you find it wholly impossible
to do this by means of Natural language.
To communicate, then, your thoughts, or even the mental pictures we have
called ideas, you need a language more nearly perfect.
This language is made up of words.
These words you learn from your mothers, and so Word language is your
mother-tongue. You learn them, also, from your friends and teachers, your
playmates and companions, and you learn them by reading; for words, as you
know, may be written as well as spoken.
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