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Show rSS The Signiftation cf Words. Th;>ok. IJ I. Mouth, jland for thi: Ideas be /;as, and which he would exprefs by them. A Child having taken notice of nothmgm the Metal he hears called Gold, but the bright fl1ining Yellow-Colour, he apphes the Word Gold only to his own Idea of that 01our, and nothmg elfe; and therefore calls the fame Colour in a Peacocks Tatl, Gold .. Another that hath better obferved, rtdds to lhining Yellow, great We1ght: And then the Sound Gold, when he ufes it nands for a complex Idea of a flumng Yellow, and very weighty Subfi~nce. Another adds to thofe ~alities, Fufibility: And then the Word Gold to him figmfies, a. Body, bnght, yellow, fufible, nnd very heavy. Another adds Malleab1hty. Each of thefe ufes equally the Word Gold, when they have Occafion to exprefs th~ It/'", they have apply'd it to. But it is evident, that each can apply tt only to his own Idea ; nor can he make it nand, as a Sign of fuch a complex Uea, as he has not. §. 4. But though Words, as they are ufed by Me~, can. pro~erly and immediately fignifie nothing but the ldeas, that are to the1r Mmds; yet they in their Thoughts, give them a fecret reference to two other Things. Firff, rl;ey foppofe their Word! to k Marks of tbe Ideas in the Mi•ls alfo of otber Men, with 1vbom tbey commumcate: For clfe they lhould talk in vam, and could not be underfiood, tf the Sounds they apphed to one Jdea, were fuch, as by the Hearer, wereapply'd to another, which is to fpeak two Languages. But in this, Men fiand not ufually to examine, whether the Idea they, and he they difcourfe with, be the fame : But think it enough,tthat they ufe th.e Wo~d, as they imagine, in the common Jl.cceptation of that Language; m wh1ch cafe, they fuppofe that the IJea, they make it a 'Sign of, is precifely the fame, to which the Underllanding "Men of that Country apply that Name. ~. >· Seco•dly, Becaufe Men would not be thought to talk hrdy of their own Imaginations, but of Things as really they are; therefore they ofien fuppof• their Words to jland aljo for the Reality of Tbings. But th~ rdating more particularly to SJbfiances, and their Names, as, perhaps, the former does to fimple Ideas anli Modes, we !hall fpeak of thefe two dilferent ways of applying Words more at large, when we come to treat of the Names of mixed Modes, and Subnances, in particular: Though give me leave here to fay, that it is a perverting the ufe of Words, and brings unavoidable Obfcurity and Confufion into their Signification, whenever we make them fiand for any thing, but thofe Ideas we have in our own Minds. ~. 6. Concerning Words alfo, this is farther to be confidercd. Firf/, That they being immediately the Signs of Men's Ideas; and by that means, the Innruments whereby Men communicate their Conceptions, and exprefs to one another thofe Thoughts and Imaginations, they have Within their own Breafis, there comes bJ conjlant ufe, to be fuch a Connexion between certain Sounds, and the Ideas theyfland for, that the Names heard, almofi as readily excite certain Ide at ; as if the ObjeCts themfelves, wb1ch are apt to produce them did adually alfetl the Senfes. Which is manifeftly fo in all obvious fenfible ~alities ; and in all Subnal)ces, that frequently, and familiarly occurr to us. §. 7; Smndly, That though the proper and immediate Signification of Words, are Ideas in the Mind of the Speaker; yet becaufe by lam•l>arufe from our Cradles, we come to learn certain articulate Sounds very p!\rfeCl:ly, and have them readily on our Tongues, and Memories, but yet are not always careful to examine, or fettle their Significations perfectly, ~hap. III. General Terms. perfeB:Iy, it often happ7ns, that Men? even when they would apply themfelves to an attentiVe Confideratton, do fet the" Thoughts more •• Words tlwt Things. Nly, becailfe Wbrds are many of them· learn'd, before the Jrleas arc known for which they fiand : Therefore fome, ·not Mly Children , but Men, fpeak feveral , Words , no otherwife thati Parrots do, only becaufe they have learn d them, and have been aCcunomed to thofe Sounds. But fo far as Words are of IJre and Signification fo far "is there a confiant connexion between the Sotind ~nd the Idea'· and a Defignation, that the one fiartd for the other: with· out which Application of them, they are nothing, but fo much irt{! gnificant Noife. §. 8. Words by long and familiar ufe, as has been . faid , come to excite in Men certam Ideas {o connantly and readtly, that they are apt to fuppofe a n:ltural connexion between them. But that they Jig,•ifie only Men's. peculiar ideas, aad that by ~ pe~fetUr arbitrary f 111pojition, is evident, 1n that they often fat! to exc1te m others (everi that ufe the fame Language) the fame Ideas we take them to be the Signs of: And every Man has fo inviolable a Liberty, to make Words nand for what Ideas he pleafcs, that no one hath the Power to make others have the fame Idras in their Minds, that he has, when they ufe the fame Words that !te does. And therefore the great Augujlus himfel( ~n the Poll'~flion b( that Power, w.hich ruled the World, acknowledg.: a he could not make a new Latin Word: which was as much as to );;~ ,- -that lie cou~d not arbitrarily appoint, what Idea any Soundih'buld be a Sign of, m the Mouths and common Language of filS Subjeds.l 'Tis true, common ufe, by a tacit Confe~t, appropri.a~ certain Sounds to certain ideas in all Languages ; wlu~ll fa far lmuts the lignification of that Sound, that unlelS a Man apphes 1t to the fame Jdta, he cannot fpcak properly. And it is alfo ~rue, that unlefs a Man's Wo~s excite the fame !tleas m the Hearer, whtch he makes them fiand for m (peaking, he cannot fpeak intelligibly. But whatever be theconfequences ofhisufe of any Words, different eah~r from th~ Pubhck, or. tha~ Pe_rfqn to whom he addrelfes them.: Tlus 1s certatn, thetr ligmficauon tri his ufe of them, is limited to hts Ideas, and they can be S1gns of nothing elfe. C H A P. I II. Of ,general Terms. hALL Things that exifi, being Particulars, it may, perhaps, be thou ht reafonable, that Words,. wh1ch .ought to be conformed to Things, lho~d be fo too, I mean in thetr S1gmficanon : but yet we find the quite contrary. The far g,reatejl partbeeof Wolrd~flt~t f~aegkle~l l:iuguages are general Terms : wh1ch has not n t 1e e ..... o _ , or Chance' but of Reafon, and Neceflity. 'd h ~ ~ Fi;n It is impojible, tbat every particular 1"bing fhoul av_e a 'dijii.ti p.cutiar Wamr. For the lignification and ufeof Wo~s, depedd1lg on that conneCtion, which the Min~ makes between ~~ i ral? an t ''f Sounds it ufes, as Signs of them, It IS necemry m t e pp !Cat~anm~s |