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In an effort to explain how most of language, which is not so directly relatable to meaning, derived from an onomatopoeic beginning, the discipline of etymology began. Through studying the derivational history of words (etymology) the naturalists tended to demonstrate that the origin of all of language was ultimately relatable to words which directly reflected the meanings of their referents.(1)____
The first philosophical forum on language eventually was developed into a discussion on the regularity of language patterns.(2)____ Two basic theoretical positions merged as explanatory frameworks for language, that which opted for irregularity and that which insisted that language was essentially regular.(3)____ From the pre-eminence of latter position it became popular to explain the irregularities of language on the basis language somehow became corrupted with proper usage through time; this theoretical position regarded the older forms of language to be the pure forms.(4)____(5)____(6)____(7)____
By the Nineteenth Century there was a severe reaction to the highly speculative nature of the philosophizing about the original language of man which had characterized much of the study of language up until then. The interest was still historical, and the goal was not so idealistic.(8)____ It was a romantic era of a rediscovery of the national past; the mother tongues of nations and families of nations rather than the mother tongue of the whole human race became the focus of attention. The romantic nationalism was a definite influence, but perhaps a more basic cause of the more real goal was the reaction to previously unscientific speculations.(9)____(10)____
