人工的言語を失った人間は表現的なのか --トマス・リードと言語の改善

Abstract

Although some commentators have argued about Reid’s distinction between natural and artificial languages, few have attended to his strange claim in Inquiry that the abolishment of artificial language makes men painters, actors, and orators. Bearing in mind the fact that Reid takes human faculties and knowledge to be continuously improving, this paper suggests a persuasive interpretation of this passage. Natural language is innately understood by mankind prior to any agreement. For example, one countenance expresses a person’s anger. Reid ‘demonstrated’ that natural language is a necessary condition for an artificial language (e.g. English), which requires agreement among users. In Inquiry, it seems that both types of languages possess each domain, that is, artificial language appeals to our intellectual powers and natural language to our active powers. However, according to his classification of eloquence, Reid emphasises that an orator must use both types of language in a good balance in order to achieve his/her purpose. Reid claims that the improvements of language are based on pneumatology, which covers human mental powers. However, in practice, he distinguishes an orator from a rhetorician and expresses the opinion that the succession of good orators gradually improves language. Further, he claims that this practice-based improvement takes priority over psychological theory-based improvement. Using these clues, this paper suggests that Reid’s abolishment of the artificial language passage does not reflect an extraordinary preference for natural language but rather his view on the ideal relationship between both types of language. When people abolish their artificial language, they communicate with each other in natural language and they can thus invent a new artificial language. With the help of some rules of grammar or eloquence, people learn and improve their language practically in the manner such that both types of language cooperatively achieve the speaker’s purposes.