Augustine: Earlier Writings (continued)
y8 AUGUSTINE: EARLIER WRITINGS
Ad.—Perhaps I can, remembering what I said a little while ago. By "words" we mean everything articulately spoken and with some m.eaning. So every name, including the word "name," is a word; but every word is not a name, though the word "word" is itself a name.
12. Aug.—If someone were to affirm and prove that, just as every name is a word, so every word is a name, could you point out the difference except in sound and spelhng? Ad.—I could not. And I do not think there is a difference. Aug.—If all articulate and meaningful sounds are both words and names, but for one reason they are called words and for another names, will there be no difference? Ad.—I don't understand how that could be. Aug.—You understand at any rate that every coloured thing is visible, and that every visible thing is coloured, though these two words have quite different meanings. Ad.—I do. Aug.—What if similarly every word is a name and every name a word, though these two words, viz., "name" and "word," have different meanings? Ad.—I now see it might be so, but I wait for you to show me how. Aug.—You are aware, I suppose, that every articulate significant sound smites the ear in order that it may be perceived, remembered and known? Ad.—I am aware of that. Aug.—Therefore, whenever we speak, two things happen. Ad.—That is so. Aug.—What if words are so called from one of these two things, and names from the other? That is to say, if verbum derives from verberare, nomen from noscere, the former would receive its due appellation from something that happens to the ear, the latter from something that happens in the mind.
13. Ad.—I shall agree when you show me how we can correctly say that all words are names. Aug.—That is easy. I suppose you once learned and still remember that a pronoun is socalled because it can stand for a noun (name), though it characterizes its object less fully than the noun it has replaced. I believe this is the definition which you used to repeat to your grammar teacher: A pronoun is a part of speech which, when put in place of a noun, designates the same object but less fully. Ad.—I remx Cmber and I approve. Aug.—You see, then, that, according to this definition, pronouns can serve only in place of nouns, and can be put only in the place of nouns. For example, we say, "this man," "the king himself," "the same woman," "this gold," "that silver." "This," "that," "himself," "the same" are pronouns. "Man," "king," "woman," "gold," "silver" are nouns, by means of which the things are more fully