It is of course true that in a certain sense the individual is

predestined to talk, but that is due entirely to the circumstance, that is,

he is born not merely in nature, but in the lap of a society that is

certain, reasonably certain, to lead him to their traditions. Eliminate 【M1】__________

society and it is every reason to believe that he will learn to walk, and, 【M2】__________

indeed, he will survive at all. But it is just as certain as that he will never 【M3】__________

learn to talk, that is, to communicate ideas according to the tradition 【M4】__________

system of a particular society. Or, again, remove the newborn

individual from the social environment into which he has come and

transplant him to an utterly alien one. He will develop the art of

walking in his new environment very much as he will have developed it 【M5】__________

in the old. But his speech will completely at variance with the speech of 【M6】__________

his native environment. Walking, then, is a general human activity that

varies only within circumscribed limits as we pass from individual to

individual. Its variability is voluntary and purposeless. Speech is a human 【M7】__________

activity that varies without assignable limit as we pass from social group

to social group, because it is a pure historical heritage of the group, the 【M8】__________

product of long-continued social usage. It varies as all creative effort

varies—not as consciously, perhaps, but none the less as truly as do the

religions, the beliefs, the customs, and the arts of different people. 【M9】__________

Walking is an organic, an instinctive function (not, of course, itself an

instinct); speech is a non-instinctive, acquiring, “cultural” function. 【M10】_________

【M7】