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An Excerpt from Plato's The Cratylus
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[Socrates:] In just this way we, too, shall apply letters
to things, using one letter for one thing, when that seems to be required, or many letters
together, forming syllables, as they are called, and in turn combining syllables,
[425a] and by their combination forming nouns and verbs.
And from nouns and verbs again we shall finally construct something great and fair and complete.
..., so now we shall make language by the art of naming, or
of rhetoric, or whatever it be. ... No, not we; I said that
too hastily. For the ancients gave language its existing composite character; and we, if we are
to examine all these matters with scientific ability, [425b]
must take it to pieces as they put it together and see whether the words, both the earliest and
the later, are given system-
atically or not; for if they are strung together at haphazard, it is a poor, unmethodical perform-
ance, my dear Hermogenes. ...... Hermogenes: By Zeus, Socrates,
maybe it is.
Socrates: Well, do you believe you could take them to pieces in that
way? I do not believe I could. ...... Hermogenes: Then I am
sure I could not.
Socrates: Shall we give up then? Or shall we do
the best we can and try to see if we are able to understand even a little about them,
[425c], so now, before we proceed, shall we say
to ourselves that if anyone, whether we or someone else, is to make any analysis of
names, he will have to analyze them in the way we have described, and we shall have
to study them, as the saying is, with all our might? Do you agree, or not?
...... Hermogenes: Yes, I agree most heartily.
[425d]
Socrates: It will, I imagine, seem ridiculous that
things are made manifest through imitation in letters and syllables; nevertheless it
cannot be otherwise. For there is no better theory upon which we can base the truth of
the earliest names, ....
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THE_BOOK_THE_CRATYLUS_03
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