Augustine: Earlier Writings
THE TEACHER 83 pleasure derives from the melody and not properly from the words sung. In prayer, we cannot hold that God needs to be taught or reminded, so that when we use words we do so to remind ourselves or to admonish and teach others. Then we decided that words were simply signs. Things which do not signify something beyond themselves cannot be signs. Then you quoted the verse, I Si nihil ex tanta superis placet urbe relinqui and I tried to show what each word signified. We could not discover what the second word signifies though it is a wellknown obvious word. I thought it was not an empty word but did express something, perhaps the state of mind of one who discovers that the object of his search does not exist, or at least thinks he has made that discovery. You made some reply, jestingly avoiding the profundity of the question, and putting it off for another time. Don't think I have forgotten the explanation you owe me. Then I tried to explain the third word in the verse and you urged me not to explain it by means of a synonym, but to show the reality which the word signified. I said it was impossible to do this in conversation, so we came to things which can be pointed out with the finger. I thought all corporeal objects were of this kind, but we found that only visible things were. Then somehow we spoke of deaf people and actors who without words and by gestures alone signify not only visible things but much else besides, indeed nearly everything we speak about. And we decided that these gestures also were signs. Then we began again to inquire how we could without signs point out actual things, since a wall, a colour, all visible things are indicated by pointing with the finger, which is itself a sign. When I wrongly said that nothing could be found which could be shown without a sign, we agreed that it was possible in the case of actions, provided we were not performing them when we were questioned, if we could perform them when questioned. But speaking was not among such actions for even if we were asked while we were speaking what speaking is, it would clearly be easy to demonstrate the action by performing the action itself
20. Hence we learned that signs are demonstrated by signs, also other things which are not signs. Likewise, without a sign, actions can be demonstrated which we can perform on being questioned. Of these three statements we undertook to consider dihgently and to discuss the first. The discussion showed that, on the one hand, there are signs which cannot be signified by the signs they themselves signify, for example the word "conjunction." On the other hand some can. For example, the word "sign" signifies a word, and the word "word" signifies a sign; so that "sign" and "word" are both signs and words. In the class of signs which are mutually significant it was shown that there are degrees of correspondence. The sound, sig-num, signifies everything by which anything is signified, but ver-bum is not a sign of all signs, but only of those which are articulately pronounced. Hence it is manifest that while sig-num signifies ver-bum and vice-versa, signum applies more widely than verbum. But in a general sense verbum and nomen have the same range of application. Our argument showed us that all the parts of speech can be names, because pronouns can be substituted for or added to them. Of all of them it can be said that they "name" something, and there is none of them which cannot be made the subject of a verb to form a complete sentence. But though "name" and "word" have the same range of applicability, since all words are names, yet they are not identical in meaning. We gave a probable reason for the distinction between "word" and "name," viz., verbum is derived from verberare, to strike the ear, nomen from the mental process of reminding. When we want to memorize something we rightly say, "What is its name?" but we do not usually say, "What is its word?" Of absolute synonyms, differing in nothing save in sound and spelling, the only example we found was nomen and onoma, a Latin word and its Greek equivalent. In the class of mutually significant signs, it escaped me that we had found no sign which does not signify itself among the other signs it signifies. There! I have recalled as much as I am able. I am sure that in our conversation you have said nothing without conscious design, and you will know whether I have summarized our talk properly and in order. viii, 21. Aug.—You have indeed repeated from memory all
I wanted; and I must confess these distinctions now seem to me to be much clearer than they did when our discussion forced
1 them out from obscurity. But it is hard to say at this point what ' goal we are striving to reach by all these round-about paths. Probably you think we have just been playing a game and diverting the mind from serious things by these apparently puerile questionings, or, perhaps, that a very small gain has been made, if any. Or, ifyou suspect that some great advantage is to arise from our debate, you want to know it now or, at all events, to be told what it is. I want you to believe that I have