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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_Letter_Museum_THE_CRATYLUS_03
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