ABSTRACT
We are tempted to expect an analogous conclusion to the study of language, viewed as the outcome of the intellectual work of successive generations. Is there not also in our linguistic equipment constant improvement? Have the varied combinations of sounds formed by the mind for translating ideas realized no progress in the course of ages ? Language never seems to stand still. Are we to look upon this flux as an illusory movement which expends itself in sterile efforts ? Or does language tend towards an ideal end to which it approaches ever nearer at every stage in its evolution ? We know the history of certain languages over very long periods. Often we see them changing with great rapidity. We are justified, therefore, in asking ourselves whither these transformations tend and in formulating our questions as to the progress of language in other terms.
