The Noblest Animate Motion

Speech, physiology and medicine in pre-Cartesian linguistic thought

Author

Jeffrey Wollock | Solidarity Foundation, New York

Hardbound – Available

ISBN 9789027245717 (Eur) | EUR 192.00

ISBN 9781556196201 (USA) | USD 288.00

e-Book –

ISBN 9789027275806 | EUR 192.00 | USD 288.00

The body of theory on speech production and speech disorder developed prior to Descartes has been so neglected by historians that its very existence is practically unknown today. Yet it provides a framework for understanding the speech process which is not only comprehensive and coherent, but of great relevance to current debates on issues of language performance and applied linguistics. Current theoretical difficulties stem largely from initial errors of Descartes; whereas earlier theoretical formulations, while outlining a bio-mechanics of speech, retain the central role of the human agent.
The discussions explicated in this book come mainly from the natural-philosophic and medical literature of Greco-Roman Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance and early 17th century. This uncharted territory is mapped by tracing its textual history and diffusion as well as explaining the theory on its own terms but in clear and comprehensible language. Interdisciplinary in perspective, the book encompasses topics of interest not only to the language sciences, but also to the biosciences, medicine, philosophy of human movement, psychology and behavioral sciences, neurosciences, speech pathology, experimental phonetics, speech and rhetoric, and the history of science in general.

[Studies in the History of the Language Sciences, 83] 1997. l, 461 pp.

Publishing status: Available

https://doi.org/10.1075/sihols.83

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations | p. xi

List of Abbreviations | p. xiii

Introduction

1. The Problem | p. xv

2. Speech in Natural Philosophy and Medicine | p. xxxv

3. The Present Work | p. xliv

Chapter 1. Traditional Concepts of Speech and Speech Defect | p. 1

1. The Word
2. Definitions of Voice and Speech
3. The Causes of Speech
4. Defects of Speech (Vitia Loquelae)

Chapter 2. Classification of Speech Defect in the Aristotelian Problems | p. 49

1. Philosophical Origins
2. Is the Speech of Infants Defective?
3. The Problems in the Middle Ages
4. The Problems in the Renaissance
5. Conclusions

Chapter 3. Galenic Classification of Speech Defect and Disorder | p. 97

1. Diseases
2. Symptoms
3. Speech Disorders: The Parts Affected
4. Conclusions

Chapter 4. “Thin” Voice or “Checked” Voice? Galen’s Lost Theory | p. 153

1. The Problem
2. Galen's Lost Theory of “Checked Voice”

Chapter 5. Moisture and the Tongue, Place and Manner of Articulation: The Tradition of Aphorism vi.32 up to the Renaissance | p. 189

1. Aphorism vi.32
2. Classical Commentaries
3. The Early Middle Ages
4. The High and Late Middle Ages

Chapter 6. Moisture and the Tongue in the Renaissance | p. 231

1. The Renaissance
2. Conclusions

Chapter 7. Speech Disorder and Melancholy in the Classical and Medieval Period | p. 261

1. Introduction
2. Tradition of Aphorisms vii.40
3. Tradition of Epidemics ii.5 and 6
4. Tradition of Problems xi.38
5. Conclusions

Chapter 8. Speech Disorder and Melancholy in the Renaissance | p. 307

1. Introduction
2. Tradition of Aphorisms vii.40
3. Epidemics ii.5 & 6 and Problems xi.38
4. Conclusions

Chapter 9. Sanctorius: Galenus contra Galenum | p. 345

1. The Dawn of Mechanism in the Speech Sciences
2. Sanctorius and his ‘Methods for Avoiding All Errors”
3. Sanctorius on the Cause of Speech Disorder
4. Implications for the History of Speech Therapy
5. Conclusions

Appendix, Six Galenic Classifications of Speech Defect and Disorder, 14th–17th Centuries | p. 365

List of Illustrations

Figure 1. Girolamo fabrizi d' Aquapendente | p. 31

Figure 2. The Organs of Speech (Fabricius 1601) | p. 35

Figure 3. The Anatomy of the Tongue (Vesalius 1543) | p. 38

Figure 4. George of Trebizond and Theodore Gaza | p. 85

Figure 5. Peter of Abano | p. 124

Figure 6. Girolamo Cardano | p. 242

Figure 7. Girolamo Mercuriali | p. 249

Figure 8. Sanctorius Sanctorius | p. 347

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This list is based on CrossRef data as of 16 april 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Subjects

Linguistics

History of linguistics

Language disorders & speech pathology

Philosophy

Main BIC Subject

HP: Philosophy

Main BISAC Subject

PHI000000: PHILOSOPHY / General

ONIX Metadata

ONIX 2.1

ONIX 3.0

U.S. Library of Congress Control Number: 97005838 | Marc record