ABSTRACT
This centuries-long continuity in the suspension of disbelief over the naturalness of language is at the heart of what Roy Harris calls the ‘language myth’. I have disagreed with Harris over the actual continuity of particular elements he identifies as constituting that myth (Joseph, 1997, 2003), and over whether we are really dealing with the clear-cut distinction between illusion and truth that his use of the term ‘myth’ implies, but I have also taken pains to stress that his powerful expositions of the topic have been among the high points of late twentieth (and now early twenty first) century writings on language. One thing on which I think he and I agree is that language ‘myths’ have been a central component of culture and merit study in their own right, study which stands to illuminate the development of virtually every aspect of human experience.
