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Copyright © 2016 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior
written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
CHAPTER 9: LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT
Chapter Outline
Please note that much of this information is quoted from the text.
I. WHAT IS LANGUAGE?
A. Defining Language
• Language is a form of communication, whether spoken, written, or signed, that is based on a
system of symbols.
• Infinite generativity is the ability to produce an endless number of meaningful sentences
using a finite set of words and rules and is a basic characteristic of human language.
B. Language’s Rule Systems
1. Phonology: The sound system of language. A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in a
language.
2. Morphology: Word formation based on meaning. A morpheme is the smallest unit of sound
which carries meaning in a language.
3. Syntax: The way words are combined for acceptable phrases and sentences.
4. Semantics: The meaning of words and sentences.
5. Pragmatics: The use of appropriate conversation and knowledge underlying the use of
language in context.
II. HOW LANGUAGE DEVELOPS
A. Infancy
1. Babbling and Other Vocalizations
• Early vocalizations are to practice making sounds, to communicate, and to attract
attention.
• A universal pattern is observed: newborn cries, cooing at 2 months, babbling by 6
months (deaf babies babble with their hands and fingers), and gestures by 8–12 months.
2. Gestures
• Pointing is considered by language experts as an important index of the social aspects
of language.
• The absence of pointing is a significant indicator of problems in the infant’s
communication system.
3. Recognizing Language Sounds
• Infants can recognize all phonemes of all languages up to about 6 months of age. After
this time, infants become more adept at recognizing the sounds of their native language
and lose the ability to recognize sounds of other languages that are not important in their
native language.
• Infants must identify individual words from the nonstop stream of sound that makes up
ordinary speech. Finding the boundaries between words is a difficult task.
4. First Words
• Between about 5 to 12 months of age, infants often indicate their first understanding of
words.
• The infant’s first spoken word usually occurs between 10 to 15 months of age.
• Long before babies say their first words, they have been communicating with their
parents, often by gesturing and using their own special sounds.
• First words include names of important people, familiar animals, vehicles, toys, body
parts, clothes, familiar items, and greetings.
• Single words are often used to express various intentions.

• The first words of infants can vary across languages.
• Receptive vocabulary refers to the words an individual understands. Receptive
vocabulary precedes and exceeds spoken vocabulary (words that the child uses).
• The rapid increase in vocabulary that begins at approximately 19 months is called the
vocabulary spurt.
• Cross-linguistic differences in word learning are apparent, with infants learning an Asian
language acquiring more verbs earlier in their development than do children learning
English.
• Some children use a referential style, others an expressive style, in learning words.
• Overextension is the tendency to apply a word to objects that are not appropriate for the
word’s meaning.
• Underextension is the tendency to apply a word too narrowly for the meanings of words.
5. Two-Word Utterances
• By 18 to 24 months of age, two-word utterances begin to occur, which rely heavily on
gesture, tone, and context in order to provide meaning:
— Identification: “See doggie.”
— Location: “Book there.”
— Repetition: “More milk.”
— Nonexistence: “All gone thing.”
— Possession: “My candy.”
— Attribution: “Big car.”
— Agent-action: “Mama walk.”
— Question: “Where ball?”
• Telegraphic speech is the use of short and precise words to communicate and is
characteristic of young children’s two- or three-word utterances.
B. Early Childhood
• Language develops rapidly in early childhood.
• Between 2 and 3 years of age, children begin the transition from saying simple sentences
that express a single proposition to saying complex sentences.
• As young children learn the special features of their own language, there are extensive
regularities in how they acquire that specific language.
• Some children develop language problems, including speech and hearing problems.
1. Understanding Phonology and Morphology
• During early childhood, most children gradually become more sensitive to the sounds of
spoken words and become increasingly capable of producing all the sounds of their
language.
• By the time children move beyond two-word utterances, they demonstrate a knowledge
of morphology rules.
• Use of plural and possessive demonstrates knowledge of morphological rules.
• Jean Berko’s research using sentence completion of a missing word relating to a story of
creatures called “Wugs” also provides evidence of morphological rule use.
2. Changes in Syntax and Semantics
• Preschool children learn and apply rules of syntax.
• Gains in semantics also characterize early childhood.
• Vocabulary development is dramatic.
• Some experts have estimated that between 18 months and 6 years of age, young children
learn about one new word every waking hour.
• The speaking vocabulary of a child entering first grade is approximately 14,000 words.
• One way children may increase their vocabulary so quickly is through fast mapping.

• Research in Life-Span Development: Family Environment and Young Children’s
Language Development
• Socioeconomic status has been linked with how much parents talk to their children
and with young children’s vocabulary.
• Other research has linked how much mothers speak to their infants and the infants’
vocabularies.
• Maternal language and literacy skills are positively related to children’s vocabulary
development.
• Mothers who frequently use pointing gestures have children with greater vocabulary.
3. Advances in Pragmatics
• Pragmatics or rules of conversation also show great improvement. Indeed, by 4 or 5 years
of age, children can suit their speech style to specific situations (e.g., they speak
differently to younger and older children).
C. Middle and Late Childhood—
• Children gain new skills as they enter school that include increasingly using language to
talk about things that are not physically present, learning what a word is, and learning
how to recognize and talk about sounds.
• It is important for children to learn the alphabetic principle (that the letters of the
alphabet represents sounds of the language) is important for learning to read and right.
1. Vocabulary, Grammar, and Metalinguistic Awareness
• The process of categorizing becomes easier as children increase their vocabulary.
• Vocabulary increases to about 40,000 words by 11 years of age.
• Children make similar advances in grammar.
• Elementary school children, due to advances in logical reasoning and analytical
skills, can now understand comparatives (e.g., shorter, deeper) and subjunctives (e.g.,
“If I were president,…”).
• The ability to understand complex grammar increases across the elementary school years.
• Children learn to use language in a more connected way (producing descriptions,
definitions, and narratives), which allows for connected discourse.
• Children must be able to do these things orally before they can deal with written
language.
• Metalinguistic awareness is a term that refers to knowledge of language, cognition
about language.
• Metalinguistic awareness improves over the elementary-school years; children define
words and learn how to use language appropriately.
• Children also make progress in understanding how to use language in culturally
appropriate ways – pragmatics.
• A research study found that low SES Spanish-speaking families had infants who
experienced more child-directed speech were better at processing words in real time and
had larger vocabularies at 2 years of age
2. Reading
• Before learning to read, children learn to use language to talk about things that are not
present; they learn what a word is; and they learn how to recognize sounds and talk about
them.
• The larger a child’s vocabulary, the easier it is for him/her to learn to read.
• Vocabulary development plays an important role in reading comprehension.
• The whole language approach stresses that reading instruction should parallel children’s
natural language learning. Reading materials should be whole and meaningful.

• The phonics approach emphasizes that reading instruction should focus on phonetics,
and its basic rules for translating written symbols into sounds. Early reading instructions
should involve simplified materials.
• Researchers have found strong evidence that direct instruction in phonics is a key aspect
of learning to read.
3. Writing
• Early scribbling in early childhood is a precursor for writing.
• Most 4-year-olds can print their first name, and most 5-year-olds can copy several short
words, although some letter reversal may still be evident. As they begin to write, children
often invent spelling of words.
• Advances in language and cognitive development provide the underpinnings for
improved writing. Providing many opportunities for writing is helpful.
• There is growing concern over the writing ability of youth and young adults.
• As with reading, teachers play a critical role in students’ development of writing skills.
4. Bilingualism and Second Language Learning
• Sensitive periods for learning a second language likely vary across different language
systems.
• Children’s ability to pronounce words with a native-like accent in a second language
typically decreases with age, with an especially sharp drop occurring after the age of
about 10 to 12.
• Some aspects of children’s ability to learn a second language are transferred more easily
to the second language than others.
• Students in the United States fall behind students in other countries when it comes to
learning a second language.
• Bilingualism—the ability to speak two languages—is associated with cognitive
development.
• Subtractive bilingualism is the term used when a person learns a second language and
ceases to use their native language.
• ELLs have been taught in one of two main ways: (1) instruction in English only, or (2) a
dual-language (used to be called bilingual) approach that involves instruction in their
home language and English
D. Adolescence
• Adolescents are generally more sophisticated in their language abilities, including:
— Metaphor: An implied comparison between two ideas that is conveyed by the abstract
meaning contained in the words used to make the comparison.
— Satire: Refers to a literary work in which irony, derision, or wit are used to expose folly
or wickedness.
— Young adolescents often speak a dialect (language distinguished by its vocabulary,
grammar, or pronunciation) with their peers, characterized by jargon and slang.
— Nicknames that are satirical and derisive also characterize the dialect of young
adolescents.
E. Adulthood and Aging
• Language abilities are thought to be maintained throughout adulthood.
• A distinct personal linguistic style is part of one’s special identity.
• Vocabulary can continue to increase throughout most of the adult years.
• Decrements may appear in late adulthood.
• Because of a decline in memory skills, older adults may have difficulty in retrieving
words from long-term memory. This often involves the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon.

• Older adults report that in less than ideal listening conditions they can have difficulty in
understanding speech.
• Some aspects of phonological skills of older adults are different than those of younger
adults.
• In general, though, most language skills decline little among older adults if they are
healthy.
• Researchers have found conflicting information about changes in discourse with aging.
• Nonlanguage factors, such as processing speed, may be responsible for some of the decline in
language skills in late adulthood.
• Alzheimer disease can affect language skills.
III. BIOLOGICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCES
A. Biological Influences
• Evidence of biological influence is that children all over the world reach language milestones
at about the same time developmentally and in the same order despite the vast variation in the
language input they receive. The fact that such a difficult feat is done so quickly also points
to biology.
• Evolution and the Brain’s Role in Language:
• In evolutionary time, language is a recent acquisition. The brain, nervous system, and
vocal apparatus of our predecessors changed over hundreds of thousands of years.
• There is evidence that the brain contains particular regions that are predisposed to be used
for language, mainly in the left hemisphere.
• Broca’s area is an area in the left frontal lobe of the brain involved in producing
words.
• Wernicke’s area is another area of the left hemisphere involved in language
comprehension. Individuals with damage to Wernicke’s area often babble words in a
meaningless way.
• Damage to either of these areas produces types of aphasia, which is a loss or
impairment of language processing.
• Chomsky’s Language Acquisition Device:
• The language acquisition device (LAD) is a theoretical construct developed by Noam
Chomsky, which proposes that a biological endowment enables children to detect certain
language categories, such as phonology, syntax, and semantics.
• Chomsky’s LAD is a theoretical construct, not a physical part of the brain.
B. Environmental Influences
• Behaviorists view language as a behavior that is learned like any other behavior with the use
of reinforcement for correct responses and productions. There is no real support for this
position.
• Children are typically immersed in language through their social environment.
• Michael Tomasello stresses that children are intensely interested in their social world and that
early in their development they can understand the intentions of other people.
• Tomasello’s interaction view of language emphasizes that children learn language in specific
contexts. Through joint attention and shared intentions, children are able to use their social
skills to acquire language early in life.
• Child-directed speech is often used by parents and other adults when they talk to young
children. It has a higher-than-normal pitch and involves using simple words and sentences
• A recent study of low SES Spanish-speaking families that found infants who experienced
more child-directed speech were better at processing words in real time and had larger
vocabularies at 2 years of age.

• Adults use other strategies that may enhance language acquisition:
• Recasting: rephrasing something the child has said in a different way, perhaps turning it
into a question.
• Expanding: restating in a linguistically sophisticated form what a child has said.
• Labeling: identifying the names of objects, which children are asked over and over—
“the great word game.”
• Applications in Life-Span Development: How Parents Can Facilitate Infants’ and Toddlers’
Language Development
• For Infants:
• Be an active conversational partner
• Talk as if the infant understands what you are saying
• Use a language style with which you feel comfortable
• For Toddlers:
• Continue to be an active conversational partner
• Remember to listen
• Use a language style with which you are comfortable, but consider ways of
expanding your child’s language abilities and horizons
• Adjust to your child’s idiosyncrasies instead of working against them.
• Avoid sexual stereotypes
• Resist making normative comparisons
C. An Interactionist View of Language
• An interactionist view of language emphasizes the contributions of both biology and
experience in language development.
• The interaction of biology and experience can be seen in the variations in the acquisition of
language.
• Jerome Bruner developed the concept of a language acquisition support system (LASS) to
describe how parents structure and support the child’s language development.
• While most children acquire their native language without explicit teaching, caregivers can
greatly facilitate a child’s language learning.
Learning Goals
1. Define language and describe its rule systems.
• What is language?
• What are language’s five main rule systems?
2. Describe how language develops through the life span.
• What are some key milestones of language development during infancy?
• How do language skills change during early childhood?
• How does language develop in middle and late childhood?
• How does language develop in adolescence?
• How do language skills change during adulthood?
3. Discuss the biological and environmental contributions to language skills.
• What are the biological foundations of language?
• What are the environmental aspects of language?
• How does an interactionist view describe language?

Key Terms
aphasia
Broca’s area
child-directed speech
dialect
expanding
fast mapping
infinite generativity
labeling
language
language acquisition device (LAD)
metalinguistic awareness
metaphor
morphology
phonics approach
phonology
pragmatics
recasting
satire
semantics
syntax
telegraphic speech
Wernicke’s area
whole-language approach
Key People
Naomi Baron
Jean Berko
Roger Brown
Noam Chomsky
Ellen Galinsky
Roberta Golinkoff
Kenji Hakuta
Betty Hart
Kathy Hirsh-Pasek
Janellen Huttenlocher
Patricia Kuhl
Todd Risley
Michael Tomasello

Lecture Suggestions
Lecture Suggestion 1: Environmental Influences on Literacy
This lecture examines research findings related to environmental influences on children’s literacy.
Santrock addresses the controversy between the phonics method and the whole-word method to teaching
reading. While these methods obviously factor into children’s learning to read, early experiences also
influence this ability. Considerable research has examined adults’ conversations with children and the
influence of parent-child interactions on literacy and language development (Crain-Thoreson & Dale,
1992; Huttenlocher, 1997; Snow, 1993).
• Reading development is influenced by early literacy activities such as “reading” picture books and
storytelling. Parents who ask their child to retell a story are facilitating the young child’s ability to
read. Snow found that children’s vocabulary is enhanced by exposure to adults who use relatively
uncommon words in everyday conversations with the child. Family contexts, especially adult-child
conversations, increase the likelihood of the child developing a larger vocabulary and ability to
recognize the words in print, thus providing a strong foundation for literacy.
• Crain-Thoreson and Dale found that parental instruction in letter naming, sounds, and frequency of
story reading was predictive of reading precocity at age 4 (knowledge of print conventions, invented
spelling, and awareness of phonology).
• Huttenlocher reports that mothers influence children’s vocabulary and grammatical structure as well.
Children of “chatty” mothers averaged 131 more words than children of less talkative mothers by 20
months (by 24 months the difference was 295 words). There are differences in complexity of sentence
structure relative to children’s environments as well. Children who are exposed to their mother’s use
of complex sentences (dependent clauses, such as “When…” or “because…”) are much more likely to
use complex sentences. These early experiences impact a child’s ability to read.
Sources:
Crain-Thoreson & Dale, P. S. (1992). Do early talkers become early readers? Linguistic precocity,
preschool language, and emergent literacy. Developmental Psychology, 28, 421–429.
Huttenlocher, J. (1997). In S. Begley, How to build a baby’s brain. Newsweek, spring/summer, 28–32.
Snow, C. E. (1993). Families as social contexts for literacy development. New Directions in Child
Development (61, 11–25). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Lecture Suggestion 2: Infant Speech Perception—
Use It or Lose It?
Create a lecture on the speech perception abilities in young infants and the contribution of biology and
experience to this ability. Discuss research evidence of categorical perception (the ability to discriminate
when two sounds represent two different phonemes, and when they lie within the same phonemic
category). Young infants have the ability to discriminate speech contrasts that are found in languages they
have not heard (Best, McRoberts, & Sithole, 1988), which suggests that categorical perception is an
innate ability and universal among infants.
The biological component of speech perception is complemented by the experiential component.
Experience plays an important role in the development of speech perception and language. The lack of
exposure to various sounds thwarts speech perception abilities. The Japanese language does not have a
phonemic distinction between r and l sounds. Your students may well have noticed that native Japanese
speakers have trouble pronouncing and discriminating between r and l sounds. Interestingly, Japanese

infants have no trouble discriminating between these sounds (Eimas, 1975). Research suggests that
infants gradually lose their ability to discriminate sound contrasts that they are not exposed to (Werker &
Lalonde, 1988). Consider showing the Development video from The Mind series because it demonstrates
Werker’s research.
Sources:
Best, C. T., McRoberts, G. W., & Sithole, N. M. (1988). Examination of perceptual reorganization for
nonnative speech contrast: Zula click discrimination by English-speaking adults and infants. Journal
of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 14, 345–360.
Eimas, P. D. (1975). Auditory and phonetic coding of the cues for speech: Discrimination of the r-l
distinction by young infants. Perception and Psychophysics, 18, 341–347.
Werker, J. F., & Lalonde, C. E. (1988). Cross-language speech perception: Initial capabilities and
developmental change. Developmental Psychology, 24, 672–683.
Lecture Suggestion 3: Auditory Skills and Language Development
This lecture extension highlights how the sensation of hearing affects the development of language in
children. It should come as no surprise that language development is intimately linked to auditory
perception. Let’s face it, how can one develop language, or vocabulary for that matter, when one is
unable to hear speech? This becomes an issue for young children who experience multiple ear infections
in early childhood. Language development is delayed if the auditory system is blocked and hearing is
muted or nonexistent. Recent research suggests that it is not only the sensation of hearing that is
important for language development, but also one’s ability to process that auditory information.
Specifically, the ability to process multiple stimuli in a rapid and successive fashion is believed to be a
cornerstone for language acquisition (Benasich, Thomas, Choudhury, & Leppaenen, 2002). Further,
individuals with developmental language disorders demonstrate deficits in rapid processing of both verbal
and nonverbal information.
Source:
Benasich, A. A., Thomas, J. J., Choudhury, N., & Leppaenen, P. H. T. (2002). The importance of rapid
auditory processing abilities to early language development: Evidence from converging
methodologies. Developmental Psychobiology, 40(3), 278–292.
Lecture Suggestion 4: Birth Order and Language Development
There is some evidence that suggests that language development in firstborn children is more advanced
than that of laterborn children. One study found that firstborn children had more advanced lexical and
grammatical development, whereas laterborn children had more advanced conversational skills (Hoff-
Ginsberg, 1998).
We know from Santrock’s text that the verbal communication that parents have with their children affects
the children’s language development. Thus, it is not surprising that birth order may affect language
development given that parents most likely communicate with firstborn and laterborn children in different
ways. Indeed, research suggests that mothers use different categories of language (e.g., social-regulative
versus metalingual language) when interacting with one child than when interacting with two children
(Oshima-Takane & Robbins, 2003). Further, this research also found that older siblings also use different
categories of speech when interacting with both their mother and younger sibling and when interacting
with their younger sibling alone.
Although there is some evidence that the language development of firstborn children is more advanced
than that of laterborn children, not all of the research supports this claim. A relatively recent study found

that the language competence of firstborn children was more advanced than that of laterborn children only
in maternal report, not in measures of children’s actual speech or in experimenter assessments (Bornstein,
Leach, & Haynes, 2004). Thus, the relationship between birth order and language development is quite
complex. However, it certainly is mediated by parental communication and how that differs for children
who are firstborn as opposed to laterborn.
Sources:
Bornstein, M. H., Leach, D. B., & Haynes, O. M. (2004). Vocabulary competence in first- and
secondborn siblings of the same chronological age. Journal of Child Language, 31(4), 855–873.
Hoff-Ginsberg, E. (1998). The relation of birth order and socioeconomic status to children’s language
experience and language development. Applied Psycholinguistics, 19(4), 603–629.
Oshima-Takane, Y., & Robbins, M. (2003). Linguistic environment of secondborn children. First
Language, 23, 21–40.
Lecture Suggestion 5: Does Feedback Facilitate Language Learning?
One study examined whether providing feedback would facilitate the immediate and delayed learning of
foreign language vocabulary (Pashler, Cepeda, Wixted, & Rohrer, 2005). Participants in this study were
given a Luganda word with its English translation. Luganda words were chosen for this study because
these words are fairly easy to pronounce, but are unfamiliar to American participants. Participants were
presented with the word pairs in the following way: the Luganda word was printed in a text box, and the
English translation was printed in a box immediately below it. To assess learning, the Luganda word was
presented in a text box, and the text box below was blank so that the participant could write in the English
translation.
This experiment took place online, and participants were randomly assigned to one of five conditions.
After viewing the word pairs two times, participants were shown the Luganda word and the blank text
box and were asked to type in the correct English translation. Following the participants’ response, they
either (1) immediately moved on to the next word, (2) moved on to the next word after a 5-second delay,
(3) saw the word correct/incorrect for 5 seconds, (4) saw the correct answer for 5 seconds, or (5) these
participants were not tested on the words following their presentation. One week later, participants were
sent an email asking them to log on to complete the test again (obviously group 5 didn’t complete it the
first time). No feedback was given after this test session.
Only the correct-answer feedback group (group 4) showed significant improvement from the first to the
second testing session. These results suggest that providing feedback about correct answers may facilitate
language learning.
Source:
Pashler, H., Cepeda, N. J., Wixted, J. T., & Rohrer, D. (2005). When does feedback facilitate learning of
words? Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 31(1), 3–8.
Lecture Suggestion 6: Ape Talk
The following is a passage from “Ape Talk—From Gua to Nim Chimpsky” that outlines the history of
attempts to teach apes to talk and sketches the controversy resulting from these attempts:
It is the early 1930s. A 7-month-old chimpanzee named Gua has been adopted by humans
(Kellogg & Kellogg, 1933). Gua’s adopters want to rear her alongside their 10-month-old son,
Donald. Gua was treated much the way we rear human infants today—her adopters dressed her,

talked with her, and played with her. Nine months after she was adopted, the project was
discontinued because the parents feared that Gua was slowing down Donald’s progress.
About twenty years later, another chimpanzee was adopted by human beings (Hayes &
Hayes, 1951). Viki, as the chimp was called, was only a few days old at the time. The goal was
straightforward: teach Viki to speak. Eventually she was taught to say “Mama,” but only with
painstaking effort. Day after day, week after week, the parents sat with Viki and shaped her
mouth to make the desired sounds. She ultimately learned three other words—papa, cup, and
up—but she never learned the meanings of these words, and her speech was not clear.
Approximately twenty years later, another chimpanzee named Washoe was adopted when she
was about 10 months old (Gardner & Gardner, 1971). Recognizing that the earlier experiments
with chimps had not demonstrated that apes have language, the trainers tried to teach Washoe the
American Sign Language, which is the sign language of the deaf. Daily routine events, such as
meals and washing, household chores, play with toys, and car rides to interesting places, provided
many opportunities for the use of sign language. In two years, Washoe learned 38 different signs
and by the age of 5 she had a vocabulary of 160 signs. Washoe learned how to put signs together
in novel ways, such as “you drink” and “you me tickle.”
Yet another way to teach language to chimpanzees exists. The Premacks (Premack &
Premack, 1972) constructed a set of plastic shapes that symbolized different objects and were
able to teach the meanings of the shapes to a 6-year-old chimpanzee, Sarah. Sarah was able to
respond correctly using such abstract symbols as “same as” or “different from.” For example, she
could tell you that “banana is yellow” is the same as “yellow color of banana.” Sarah eventually
was able to “name” objects; respond “yes,” “no,” “same as,” and “different from”; and tell you
about certain events by using symbols (such as putting a banana on a tray). Did Sarah learn a
generative language capable of productivity? Did the signs Washoe learned have an underlying
system of language rules?
Herbert Terrace (1979) doubts that these apes have been taught language. Terrace was part of
a research project designed to teach language to an ape by the name of Nim Chimpsky (named
after famous linguist Noam Chomsky). Initially, Terrace was optimistic about Nim’s ability to
use language as human beings use it, but after further evaluation, he concluded that Nim really
did not have language in the sense that human beings do. Terrace says that apes do not
spontaneously expand on a trainer’s statements as people do; instead, the apes just imitate their
trainer. Terrace also believes that apes do not understand what they are saying when they speak;
rather they are responding to cues from the trainer that they are not aware of. The Gardners take
exception to Terrace’s conclusions (Gardner & Gardner, 1986). They point out that chimpanzees
use inflections in sign language to refer to various actions, people, and places. They also cite
recent evidence that the infant chimp Loulis learned over 50 signs from his adopted mother
Washoe and other chimpanzees who used sign language.
The ape language controversy goes on. It does seem that chimpanzees can learn to use signs
to communicate meanings which has been the boundary for language. Whether the language of
chimpanzees possesses all of the characteristics of human language, such as phonology,
morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics, is still being argued (Maratsos, 1983;
Rumbaugh, 1988).

Classroom Activities
Classroom Activity 1: Do Animals Have
the Ability to Communicate?
This activity affords students an opportunity to discuss the utility of animal research in the study of
language development. Begin this discussion by describing research studies such as Washoe (the first ape
to be taught sign language) (Gardner & Gardner, 1971) and Koko the gorilla (Patterson, 1978). Following
is some information about Gua, who was the first chimpanzee whom psychologists raised as if human.
In 1933, Winthrop Niles Kellogg, his wife, and their son Donald (10 months old) engaged in an
experiment in which Donald was raised with a chimpanzee (Kellogg & Kellogg, 1933). Robert Yerkes,
Yale’s ape expert, arranged for the loan of Gua, a 7-month-old female chimpanzee. For nine months, the
Kelloggs and Gua lived in a bungalow near Yale Anthropoid Experiment State in Florida. Both Donald
and Gua were cuddled, fed, dressed, and tested. The Kelloggs reported in The Ape and the Child that Gua
learned to walk upright more quickly than did Donald. Gua liked to pull at hangings, such as curtains,
tablecloths, and skirts. Gua also recognized people better than Donald, by the smell of their chests and
armpits, and did better recognizing by clothes than by faces. Donald, on the other hand, recognized faces.
Although Donald liked perfume, Gua did not. Both reacted the same to sweet, salty, and bitter substances,
except that Gua was more likely to enjoy sour things. Gua recognized herself in a mirror before Donald
did, and she was also the first to become interested in picture books; however, Gua did not learn to speak
human words. At the end of the study, the Kelloggs concluded that when Gua was treated as a human
child, she behaved like a human child in all ways that her body and brain structure allowed. Donald and
his parents went on to Indiana University; Gua was returned to Yerkes, where she lived in a cage and was
part of experiments.
Have students discuss their opinions regarding the value of language learning studies with primates. What
have researchers learned from animal studies about the development or cause of language? Do they have
any ethical concerns? If they think that animal studies are beneficial for the understanding of language
development, they should describe how they think this type of research should be conducted.
Sources:
Gardner, B. T., & Gardner, R. A. (1971). Two-way communication with an infant chimpanzee. In A. M.
Schrier and F. Stollnitz (Eds.), Behavior of nonhuman primates. New York: Academic Press.
Gerow, J. (1988). Time retrospective: Psychology 1923–1988. Time. 16–17.
Kellogg, W. N., & Kellogg, I. A. (1933). The ape and the child. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Patterson, F. G. (1978). The gestures of a gorilla: Language acquisition in another pongid. Brain and
Language, 5, 72–97.
Classroom Activity 2: Which Comes First? The Chicken or the Egg?
This activity highlights some of the caveats of correlational research. First, share the following research
findings with the class. Vigil, Hodges, and Klee (2005) compared the communication of parents with
toddlers who have a language delay with that of parents of toddlers without such a delay. The results
indicated that both sets of parents produced the same amount of linguistic input, but the type of input
differed. Parents of toddlers with normal language development used more responses, expansions, and
self-directed speech than parents of toddlers with language delays. Ask students to explain this
relationship. The discussion should reveal that it is possible that the differences in parental
communication may contribute to language development, but that it is equally plausible that parental

communication is a function of toddler language. So which came first—parental communication or
language delay?
Students could then be broken down into groups and asked to design an experimental study that examines
the direction of cause.
Source:
Vigil, D. C., Hodges, J., & Klee, T. (2005). Quantity and quality of parental language input to late-
talking toddlers during play. Child Language Teaching & Therapy, 21(2), 107–122.
Classroom Activity 3: Language Development and Multiple Births
Research suggests that there are increased levels of language impairment (e.g., Mogford-Bevan, 2000)
and delay (see Kwong & Nicoladis, 2005; McMahon & Dodd, 1997) in multiple-birth offspring. Further,
it is possible that the extent of the impairment is more significant as the number of children born (e.g.,
quadruplets vs. triplets vs. twins vs. singletons) increases (see McMahon & Dodd). Ask students to use
the three perspectives on language development discussed in the text to formulate explanations for this
finding.
Discussion should reveal that these language delays are most likely due to both genetic and environmental
factors. See Mogford-Bevan (2000) for a discussion of both genetic and environmental factors that can
affect development.
Students should keep in mind that language delay is not a necessary characteristic of multiple births.
Kwong and Nicoladis (2005) found no differences in the linguistic environment of a set of triplets and
their singleton cousin. Further, the triplets’ language skills were in the normal range of development by
the end of the study.
Sources:
Kwong, T., & Nicoladis, E. (2005). Talk to me: Parental linguistic practices may hold the key to reducing
incidence of language impairment and delay among multiple-birth children. Journal of Speech-
Language Pathology & Audiology, 29(1), 6–13.
McMahon, S., & Dodd, B. (1997). A comparison of the expressive communication skills of triplet, twin,
and singleton children. European Journal of Disorders of Communication, 32(3), 328–345.
Mogford-Bevan, K. (2000). Developmental language impairments with complex origins: Learning from
twins and multiple birth children. Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica, 52, 74–82.
Classroom Activity 4: Supporting Arguments for
Three Views of Language Development
This activity gives students an opportunity to further their understanding of the three major views of
language development.
• First, have them break into small groups and assign them one of the three positions (biological,
behavioral, and interactionalist). As a group, they should identify the basis of language development
that their theoretical perspective assumes and generate evidence that supports that view using their
textbooks.
• Second, select one group from each perspective to present their theoretical position on language
development to the class. You can have the groups debate their positions or merely present the
arguments and evidence.

• Third, have the students who are not presenting determine which position makes the most sense to
them. If they cannot come to a consensus, or if they dispute all three of the theoretical claims, have
them generate a new perspective on the development of language. The new perspective can include
components of the three perspectives that were provided.
Logistics:
• Group size: Small groups (2 to 4 students) and full class discussion
• Approximate time: Small group (15 minutes) and full class discussion (30 minutes)
Classroom Activity 5: Observation of Parent-Infant Interaction
With this activity, students will assess the communication patterns of infants and the interactional
synchrony between caregiver and infant. If possible, videotape at least two infants between the ages of 9
and 18 months interacting with their caregiver in face-to-face play for approximately 10 minutes. Have
students identify the infant’s vocal and nonverbal communication behaviors. Depending on the
videotaped segment and the age of the infant, students should notice eye contact, cooing, pointing,
babbling, crying, laughing, facial expressions, intonation patterns, and so on. Next, the students should
focus on what the caregiver is doing to elicit communication from the infant.
• Instructions for Students:
1. List all of the infant’s behaviors that you consider to be communication.
2. List all of the caregiver’s behaviors that you think are eliciting communication from the infant.
3. What sounds did the infant produce? Were all of his or her sounds part of his or her native
language?
4. What babbling patterns were used? Did the infant have the same intonation patterns as his or her
parents’ native language?
5. Did it appear that the caregiver and the infant were having a conversation? Why or why not?
• Use in the Classroom: Discuss the students’ observations and highlight the interactional dance that
occurs and the many different ways that young infants communicate with their world. Note whether
the students considered all behavior to be communication, or whether they discriminated between
communicative and noncommunicative behavior.
Logistics:
• Materials: Two videotapes of parent-infant interaction
• Group size: Full class discussion
• Approximate time: Full class (25 minutes per videotape)
Source:
King, M. B., & Clark, D. E. (1989). Instructor’s manual for Santrock and Yussen’s child development: An
introduction, 4th
ed. Dubuque, IA: Wm. C. Brown Communications.
Classroom Activity 6: Testing Language Development
This activity asks students to relate their development to the information provided in the textbook and to
design a research study regarding parental reports of infant development. Santrock describes the
development of language in infants in sufficient detail to allow for a comparison.
1. Have students ask their parents to indicate how old the students were when (1) the parents could tell
the difference between the cry communicating hunger and the cry communicating wet diapers, (2)

they spoke their first word (indicate what the word was), (3) they first put two words together, and (4)
they created their first sentence.
2. Ask students to bring their data to class and compare it to that provided in the text. Once the
comparison is made, have students indicate why the differences exist.
3. Break the students into groups, and ask them to design a retrospective study that would determine
when each of the initial stages of language development occurred. They should also identify the
problems with this type of study.
4. After sufficient time has passed, bring them back together, and have them describe their studies and
the difficulties they had in designing them.
5. As a class, have students design a more realistic study of the progression of language development
(longitudinal, naturalistic observation).
Logistics:
• Group size: Individual, small group (2 to 4 students), and full class discussion
• Approximate time: Individual (10 minutes before class meeting), small group (30 minutes), and full
class discussion (30 minutes)
Source:
King, M. B., & Clark, D. E. (1989). Instructor’s manual for Santrock and Yussen’s child development: An
introduction, 4th
ed. Dubuque, IA: Wm. C. Brown Communications.

Discussion Board Prompts
For each chapter, a few discussion board prompts are provided. Some of these prompts may be
controversial, but all should encourage the student to further process course material. Although these
are intended for online discussions, they could easily be used for an in-class discussion.
1. Should U.S. schools require learning a second language during elementary school? Why or why
not? If yes, which language should be taught and why?
2. Why do teenagers have their own dialect? What benefits and costs could such a dialect have?
3. A surprising number of college students need to take remedial courses in reading and/or writing.
Should all high schools require a minimal standard of reading and writing in order to graduate?
Why or why not?

Classroom Discussion Questions
These questions can be utilized in the classroom with a partner or small group. They can be used as
an introduction to the topic or as questions to start class discussions.
1. With a partner discuss the pros and cons to using child directed speech? Do you think adults
should use “baby talk” when talking to an infant or child? Why or why not?

Journal Entry
For each chapter, a journal entry is suggested that encourages each student to apply that chapter’s
material to his or her own development.
Journal entry prompt: Were you taught to read using the whole-language approach or the phonics
approach? Provide examples of reading activities you were exposed to at school.

Personal Applications
Personal Application 1: Birth Order and Language Development
The purpose of this activity is to get students to think about how birth order could influence language
development. Begin by asking students to share their birth order. Who is firstborn? Second? Middle
child? Last child? Then ask students to share their perspective on how birth order may influence the
development of language. Perhaps language will be accelerated because infants are surrounded by many
more conversations. Alternatively, language could be delayed because the speech that surrounds the
infant is less well articulated and perhaps grammatically incorrect. Further, parents may spend more time
conversing with older siblings and thus spend less time in one-on-one conversations/interactions with the
infant.
One research study examining this issue suggests that secondborn children are more advanced than
firstborn children were in pronoun production, but that there was no difference in overall language
development (Ashima-Takane, Goodz, & Deverensky, 1996). This suggests that there are neither benefits
nor expenses in language development as a function of birth order. This activity could be turned into a
research project as well (see RP 1).
Source:
Oshima-Takane, Y., Goodz, E., & Deverensky, J. L. (1996). Birth order effects on early language
development: Do secondborn children learn from overheard speech? Child Development, 67(2), 621–
634.
Personal Application 2: “Hewo Witto Baby”
Think about the last time you were presented with a baby. Knowing that the child doesn’t understand
language, did you say things like “Hello,” or “How are you today?” Describe the tone of your voice. Did
it change when you spoke to the baby? Now think about times you have seen others talk to babies. While
some people are awkward and others are comfortable; we all tend to change our manner of speaking when
we interact with infants, and the changes are generally in the same direction. That is, most adults change
their speech and mannerisms in the same way when speaking to an infant. This behavior is part of child
directed speech, which is sometimes called motherese or parentese. Why do you think this occurs?
Now think about the ways in which adults talk to young children. When a mistake is made in grammar or
pronunciation, do they correct it or are they more likely to correct the meaning? How do you think this
adult behavior fits into the language development notion held by empiricists or behaviorists that each time
we talk to a child we are giving little language lessons to them? Is this a good argument about how
language is learned, and could it be used as an explanation for concepts like infinite generativity?
Personal Application 3: Does Day Care Facilitate Language?
The most comprehensive study of the effects of early child care has recently reported that children who
attend higher-quality child care in a center-type arrangement have better language performance at 4 and a
half years than children in any other kind of child care arrangement (NICHD, 2002). Ask students to
reflect on their own experiences with child care and discuss their opinions regarding this finding. Ask
students to indicate whether they agree or not and to offer potential explanations for the finding.
Source:

NICHD Early Child Care Research Network (2002). Early child care and children’s development prior to
school entry: Results from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care. American Educational Research
Journal, 39(1), 133–164.
Personal Application 4: Language Disorders and Socioemotional Development
It is not hard to imagine that language disorders may affect children’s socioemotional development. Let’s
face it, when you hear an adult speaking with some type of language impediment (e.g., an articulation
disorder, a voice disorder), it is easy to associate the disorder with “inferior” intellectual capability. But
do these two things go hand in hand? Do individuals with language disorders have less sophisticated
cognitive skills? Ask students to contemplate and share their thoughts on this.
After sharing their thoughts, ask students to also think about their early childhood experiences. Do they
remember a child with some type of language disorder (or were they themselves a child with such a
disorder)? If they do remember such a child, do they also remember how this child was treated by others
(e.g., teachers, peers)? What do they think the long-term consequences of this treatment might be?
After this discussion, share the findings of one study examining long-term consequences of
developmental language disorders with the class. This study examined men who had a severe receptive
developmental language disorder in childhood and compared them with their non-language-disordered
siblings and matched controls of another sample. The controls and siblings were matched on such things
as age, performance IQ, childhood IQ, and social class (Clegg, Hollis, Mawhood, & Rutter, 2005). They
found that the men with the developmental language disorder had normal intelligence but had
impairments in social adaptation (e.g., prolonged unemployment, few close friendships, and romantic
relationships) and higher rates of schizotypal characteristics. Ask students to contemplate the reasons for
these long-term consequences.
The authors of the cited study suggest that the long-term consequences are most likely due to some of the
deficits associated with the receptive language disorder (such as deficits in theory of mind, verbal short-
term memory, phonological processing) as well as the social adaptation problems that these individuals
have.
Source:
Clegg, J., Hollis, C. Mawhood, L., & Rutter, M. (2005). Developmental language disorders—A follow-
up in later adult life. Cognitive, language, and psychosocial outcomes. Journal of Child Psychology
& Psychiatry, 46(2), 128–149.

Research Projects
Research Project 1: Birth Order and Language Development
This research project follows from the Lecture Suggestion and Personal Application about Birth Order
and Language Development. Students can work independently or in small (2–3 students) groups.
Research examining relations between birth order and a variety of outcomes (e.g., personality) is
somewhat controversial—some studies find support for birth order effects whereas others do not.
Oshima-Takane, Goodz, and Deverensky (1996) found that secondborn children have more advanced
pronoun production as compared to firstborn children, but that the overall language development of
siblings was the same. Students could be asked to share their own experiences within their families and
to form an opinion regarding birth order and language development. After doing so, students could then
be sent to the library to research this topic. After examining the literature, students could report their
findings orally in class or in a written paper. It would be interesting to open the discussion in class,
because it would enable the instructor to also highlight how important it is to validate commonsense
notions and popular media reports in the empirical literature.
Source:
Oshima-Takane, Y., Goodz, E., & Deverensky, J. L. (1996). Birth order effects on early language
development: Do secondborn children learn from overheard speech? Child Development, 67(2), 621–
634.
Research Project 2: Caregiver-Infant Language
In this project, students will gain a better understanding of communication techniques that caregivers use
when interacting with infants, and they will gain experience with naturalistic observation methods.
Students will examine recasting, echoing, and expanding using naturalistic observation. They should go
to a local shopping mall and observe a caregiver with an infant 18 to 24 months old. The observation
period should be approximately 15 minutes. Using the provided data sheet (Handout RP 9-2), they
should record three instances of speech by the caregiver to the infant and classify each instance as
recasting, echoing, or expanding. In addition to noting the caregiver’s statements, they should also note
the infant’s response to each statement. Finally, they should answer the following questions:
• What types of techniques did the caregiver use with the infant you observed?
• How did the infant respond to the statement made by the caregiver?
• From your observations, do you think recasting, echoing, and expanding are effective techniques in
aiding infants to learn language? Why or why not?
• What variables might have affected the quality of data you collected? Might your conclusions have
been different if you had observed a different caregiver-infant pair? How?
Have the students present data from the research project in class. Do the observations agree with the
presentation in the textbook?
Research Project 3: Dementia and Language
There is some research to suggest that cognitive deficits, including language decay, may be predictive of
later cognitive impairment (see Jorm, Masaki, Petrovitch, Ross, & White, 2005). For this project,
students will be asked to explore this finding in the literature and/or in a naturalistic observational study.

This research project could include a review of the literature and research proposal, a naturalistic
observational study, or both.
Students could begin by exploring the literature relating to language development and cognitive
impairment/dementia (this could be done individually or in small groups). After exploring the literature,
students could generate an introduction and proposed methodology for a naturalistic observation
examining this relationship. Students could then visit a nursing home, personal care home, or retirement
community to investigate the hypotheses generated through their review of the literature. This project
would highlight the importance of interrater reliability and clear operational definitions of variables.
Upon completion of the project, data could be analyzed individually in written reports or for the class as a
whole (it would be possible to design the study as a class so that all students are collecting the same data).
Discussion should involve the actual findings, and how they relate to the literature as well as
problems/issues that arose during the study.
Source:
Jorm, A. F., Masaki, K. H., Petrovitch, H., Ross, G. W., & White, L. R. (2005). Cognitive deficits 3 to 6
years before dementia onset in a population sample: The Honolulu-Asia aging study. Journal of the
American Geriatrics Society, 53(3), 452–455.
Research Project 4: Biology and Language
Research in all areas of psychology is finding more and more connections between brain biology and
behavior. Research in language development is certainly no different. For example, some of the studies
indicate that polymicrogyria (a rare brain disorder that produces structurally abnormal cerebral
hemispheres) is related to severe developmental language disorders (Guerreiro et al., 2002), and that
children with developmental language disorders also have an increased brain volume and an increased
volume of cerebral white matter (Herbert et al., 2003).
Have students form groups, and send them to the library to research the underlying biology of language
development—either “normal” or “abnormal.” Have each group choose one area of the brain on which to
focus (you could have the groups identify the area themselves through their literature search, or you could
assign each group an area). Groups should answer the following questions:
1. What area of the brain did you find to be related to language development?
2. How is it related, specifically (i.e., does it relate to speech production, comprehension, etc.)?
3. How does it influence language (i.e., does it regulate particular neurotransmitters, is this area of the
brain smaller in children with language disorders, and so on)?
4. To what other behaviors/disorders is this area related (e.g., polymicrogyria is related to other
developmental disorders or delays, seizures, motor problems, and so on)?
5. How do these other disorders relate/connect to language development?
Students can report their findings orally or in written form, although oral presentations would allow the
dissemination of more information to the entire class. Alternatively, if one chooses to use written papers,
perhaps students could read one or two papers from other groups and critique them thus allowing the
dissemination of new information.
Sources:
Guerreiro, M. M., Hage, S. R. V., Guimaraes, C. A., Abramides, D. V., Fernandes, W., Pacheco, P. S.,
Piovesana, A. M. S. G., Montenegro, M. A., & Cendes, F. (2002). Developmental language disorder
associated with polymicrogyria. Neurology, 59(2), 245–250.

Herbert, M. R., Ziegler, D. A., Makris, N., Bakardjiev, A., Hodgson, J., Adrien, K. T., Kennedy, D. N.,
Filipek, P. A., & Caviness, V. S., Jr. (2003). Larger brain and white matter volumes in children with
developmental language disorder. Developmental Science, 6(4), F11–F22.
Research Project 5: Does Feedback Facilitate Language Learning?
This research project extends the Lecture Suggestion on the same topic. Students can be asked to design
an experimental study on whether feedback facilitates language learning in children. They can use a
methodology similar to the one used in the Pashler, Cepeda, Wixted, and Rohrer (2005) study or can
design their own. To design the study, students can be placed in small groups, and then the class can
reconvene as a whole and integrate their ideas into one methodology. After completing the methodology,
each student could be required to test children (the age of the children would need to be determined) to
determine whether feedback facilitates language learning. The number of children that each student
would need to test would depend on the number of conditions in the study. Students could then report
their findings in class, and the results could be discussed.
Research Project 6: Language Errors
This class project exposes students to the kinds of errors children make when they are acquiring language.
Have each student pair up with another student in the class. One student will act as the experimenter,
while the other will act as the observer. They should test two different children: one 3 to 4 years of age,
the other 7 to 8 years of age. In order to test the children, the project will have to be approved by the
human subjects review board at your school, and the students will need to get a signed informed consent
form from the children’s parents.
The children will receive from the students three different tasks evaluating their understanding and use of
the passive construction. Students should present an act-out task, an imitation task, and a production task.
The task and sentence descriptions follow. Handout RP 9-6 can be used as a data sheet to record
observations. The students should answer the provided questions as well.
• Act-out Task: Have several objects available—a toy car and truck; a toy doll; a toy horse, cow, dog,
and cat. Read the sentences below one at a time, and have the child act out the sentences with the
toys.
• Imitation Task: Present each of the sentences below to each child, and have the child repeat the
sentences back to you.
• Production Task: Perform the actions in each of the sentences below with the toys for the child. Ask
the child to tell you what happened starting with the first noun in the sentence. (For instance, for item
5, roll the car along so that it hits the truck, and then ask the child to tell you what happened
beginning with the truck.)
1. The car hit the truck.
2. The dog was kicked by the cat.
3. The boy was bitten by the dog.
4. The boy hit the cat.
5. The truck was hit by the car.
6. The cow stepped on the horse.
7. The cat kicked the dog.
8. The cat was hit by the boy.
9. The dog bit the boy.
10. The horse was stepped on by the cow.
• What did the 3- to 4-year-old child do in response to the act-out task? The imitation task? The
production task? Was performance on one task better than on the others? If so, which? What sorts of

errors appeared in the act-out task? What about the imitation task? The production task? Were the
errors similar in the various tasks?
• What did the 7- to 8-year-old child do in response to the act-out task? The imitation task? The
production task? Was performance on one task better than on the others? If so, which? What sorts of
errors appeared in the act-out task? What about the imitation task? The production task? Were the
errors similar in the various tasks?
• Compare the two children. What differences, if any, did you see on their performances on these three
tasks? How would you account for the differences? What is the nature of language learning that
seems to be occurring during this time?
• What criticisms could be leveled at the procedures you used in this demonstration? For example, do
you think each task should have had different questions?
Have students present the data from the research project in class. What kinds of errors did the younger
children make on the tasks? Were there individual differences within age groups present (i.e., did some of
the younger children perform all tasks well, while other children made errors with all tasks?)? How did
the older children perform on these tasks? Were some tasks easier? What do these findings tell us about
the development course for understanding active and passive sentences? What strategies did children use
when they made errors?

Film and Video List
The following films and videos supplement the content of Chapter 9. Please note that some of the video
descriptions are quoted from the publisher’s/distributor’s description.
Body Language: Cultural Differences (Insight Media, 2007, 30 minutes). In this program, a diversity
specialist outlines differences in behaviors among non-U.S. cultures and introduces multicultural
manners. The program covers such topics as greetings, physical contact between the sexes, smiling, and
embracing and emphasizes that acceptable norms vary among cultures.
Communication Disorders in Children (Insight Media, 1990, 30 minutes). This DVD shows how
newborns and young children develop communication skills and investigates developmental challenges in
various stages. It presents strategies and interventions for the recognition and treatment of developmental
disorders and discusses behavioral and acoustic features of hearing loss, language disorders, and speech
dysfunction.
Cross-Cultural Communication (Insight Media, 2002, 24 minutes). Providing a sociological and
psychological perspective on cross-cultural communication, this program explores the nature and
significance of cultural variations in verbal and nonverbal communication.
Developing Language (Insight Media, 24 minutes). This program charts the development of children’s
language from birth to age 5, and then asks the question, “What is left to learn?”
Developing Language: Learning to Question, Inform, and Entertain (Films for the Humanities and
Sciences, 1994, 25 minutes). Starting right from infancy, this program charts the development of
language during childhood. Basic language acquisition, learned from rudimentary and higher-level
child/caregiver interactions, is described. Aspects of competence that go beyond the purpose of simple
communication are also considered, including the skill of using conversation for establishing and
furthering social relationships, the ability to employ language as a part of games, the capacity to
understand jokes, and the awareness of what other people know and understand at various stages of
maturation.
Doing What Comes Naturally: Childhood Language Acquisition (Films for the Humanities and Sciences,
47 minutes). Experts deflate misconceptions about childhood language acquisition.
Do You Speak American (PBS, 2005, 180 minutes). Is American English in decline? Is there a difference
between men and women in how they adapt to linguistic variations? These questions, and more, about our
language catapulted Robert MacNeil and William Cran—authors of The Story of English—across the
country in search of the answers
Gender and Communication: How Men and Women Communicate Differently (Insight Media, 2007, 20
minutes). Discussing research findings on communication differences between males and females, this
DVD presents and analyzes vignettes that illustrate the differences among male-male communication
interactions, male-female interactions, and female-female interactions. It considers verbal and nonverbal
differences in communication styles.
Gender and Communication: Styles and Stereotypes (Insight Media, 2008, 22 minutes). This program
explores the communication gap between men and women. It considers why some men emphasize the
literal meaning of words and why some women weaken their speech patterns. The program also examines
each gender’s motivations for asking questions.

Infancy: Beginnings in Cognition and Language (Magna Systems, 29 minutes). This video explores infant
senses and perception and the development of cognition and language during the first year of life. In
addition, the role that parents play in language learning is discussed.
Interpersonal Communication and Conflict (Insight Media, 2008, 21 minutes). In this program, Thomas
E. Harkins of New York University examines conflict, outlines the potential benefits of conflict, presents
various definitions for conflict, negates common misconceptions surrounding conflict, discusses sources
and patterns of conflict, and discusses conflict management and prevention. He looks at pragmatic and
social constructionist views of communication and conflict; emphasizes the role of context in determining
communication content; and explains how differences in core beliefs, values, attitudes, habits, and goals
can cause conflicts, even when these differences occur on a subconscious level. The program contrasts
constructive and destructive patterns of conflict, outlines the characteristics of destructive conflict, and
presents constructive methods of conflict management. It covers such topics as flexibility, paralinguistics,
avoidance and engagement, styles and tactics of conflict resolution, and the role of egocentrism in
conflict. The DVD features entertaining, illustrative vignettes.
Interpersonal Communication with People of Different Ages (Insight Media, 2008, 22 minutes).
Emphasizing the role of respect in all interpersonal interactions, this program examines communication
with individuals of different ages and considers the ways in which human development affects
communication abilities. It outlines the developmental psychology and life-space perspectives of human
development and explains that age groups are social constructs. The program explores the role of positive
and negative stereotypes in age-related communication, outlines the natural reasons individual create and
use stereotypes, shows how stereotypes provide categories that offer cues for appropriate behavior,
discusses the limits of stereotypes, and teaches how to employ stereotypes and the recognition of their
existence to treat people of all ages as unique individuals. The program also offers skills and techniques
for communicating with individuals of different ages and provides specific guidelines for modifying
communication to enhance interpersonal interactions with infants, toddlers, adolescents, and older adults.
Invisible Rules: Men, Women, and Teams (Insight Media, 2005, 33 minutes). Exploring the different
rules that men and women use to determine the appropriateness of behavior, this program shows how
such unwritten rules result in conflict and confusion. It offers techniques that improve cross-gender
understanding and facilitate teamwork.
Language and Thinking (Insight Media, 30 minutes). Brain development and language acquisition are
explored. This video features Elizabeth Bates, Jean Mandler, and Susan Curtiss’s perspectives on the
beginning of language and grammar.
Language Development (Films for the Humanities and Sciences, 40 minutes). This program emphasizes
the development of language in babies and young children from the first cry to the language development
of a 7-year-old. In addition, the program discusses the arguments in the nature-nurture debate, as well as
other theories.
Listening (Insight Media, 2008, 26 minutes). Differentiating between listening and hearing, this DVD
examines different types of listening, including discriminative, comprehensive, critical-evaluative,
therapeutic, and appreciative forms, and looks at the elements of the listening process. The program also
considers barriers to effective listening.
Nonverbal Communication and Culture (Insight Media, 2005, 20 minutes). This DVD addresses cultural
issues in nonverbal communication. It examines conscious and unconscious gestures; facial expressions;

cultural differences in voice, paralanguage, and the use of silence; and space and body distance. The
program offers illustrative vignettes and expert commentary.
Principles of Interpersonal Communication (Insight Media, 2008, 25 minutes). In this program, Karina
Alexanyan of Columbia University outlines the functions of interpersonal communication, instrumental,
prevention, phatic, affective, and deceptive forms; introduces the theory behind interpersonal
communication; and teaches how to increase the effectiveness of interpersonal interactions. Explaining
that communication cannot be separated from context and that context can be as important to
communication as the words spoken, Alexanyan explores the variables that define context, including
situation, style, function, participants, body language, and conscious and unconscious assumptions and
intentions. She considers the influences of group affiliation and diversity on interpersonal interactions;
discusses such facets of nonverbal communication as body language, personal appearance, proxemics,
paralanguage, haptics, and chronemics; examines listening and offers tips to improve listening
effectiveness; and covers such interpersonal skills as relating, conflict management, responding to self-
disclosure, giving and receiving feedback, and enhancing communication with individuals from diverse
backgrounds. The DVD includes vignettes that illustrate effective and ineffective interpersonal
interactions.
Scales of Symbolic Formation and the Acquisition of Language (Insight Media, 30 minutes). This video
discusses how symbolic capacity relates to language development by following a child’s development and
profiling a deaf child’s language acquisition.
Secrets of the Wild Child (NOVA/PBS, 1994, 60 minutes). In 1970, social workers in Los Angeles
discovered a modern-day "wild child," a 13-year-old girl who had been locked in a room in social
isolation for most of her life. At the time of her discovery, a debate raged over a hypothesis describing a
"critical period" of language acquisition. NOVA probes her strange and riveting story as doctors tried to
unravel this linguistic riddle.
Student and Adult Conflicts (Insight Media, 2006, 11 minutes). This program teaches how to manage
conflicts between teenagers and adults. It features illustrative vignettes that show an argument between a
student and teachers and a situation in which a storeowner mistakenly believes a group of youths has
stolen from him.
Talking (Films for the Humanities and Sciences, 1999, 52 minutes). For the newborn, the notion of
coexistence—that there are others in their world with whom they can communicate—begins with crying.
In this program, researchers and other experts join with parents to discuss the steps children go through in
mastering their mother tongue. Topics include the process of cognition, a baby’s ability to make use of
body language and semiotic gestures, babbling as a precursor to language acquisition, time frames for
learning to speak, and growing up in a multilingual home.
That’s Not What I Meant: Language, Culture, and Meaning (Insight Media, 2004, 55 minutes). In this
considers why communication between the sexes often goes awry. She discusses language and meaning;
signals, devices, and rituals; framing and metamessages; pacing and pausing; overlap and interruption;
indirectness; listening; and conversational style. Tannen also considers the effects of cultural factors on
communication.
Through Deaf Eyes (PBS, 2007, 120 minutes). Through Deaf Eyes explores nearly 200 years of Deaf life
in America. The film presents the experiences of American history from the perspective of deaf citizens.
Interviews include actor Marlee Matlin, I. King Jordan, other community leaders, historians, and deaf
Americans with diverse views on language use, technology and identity. Six artistic works by Deaf media
artists are woven throughout the documentary that complement the core of the film.

True Whispers: The Story of the Navajo Code Talkers (PBS, 2007, 60 minutes). Exploring the personal
and heartfelt story of the Navajo Code Talkers, this program tells the stories of the young Navajo men
recruited from harsh government boarding schools into the Marines during World War II. From 1942–
1945, the Code Talkers devised an unbreakable code in their native language and transmitted vital
messages in the midst of combat against the Japanese.
Unlocking Language (Films for the Humanities and Sciences, 29 minutes). Experts discuss the
development and transmission of language. Topics covered include language used to express abstractions,
the evolution of language, language as an innately guided behavior in unborn babies, infants and toddlers,
the parts of the brain involved in language, language disorders, and isolation of the Speech 1 gene.

Web Site Suggestions
American Academy of Family Physicians, information on Language Delay:
www.aafp.org/afp/990600ap/990600d.html
American Association for Applied Linguistics: http://www.aaal.org/
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association: http://www.asha.org/public/speech/development/
English Language Learners: http://www.nea.org/home/32346.htm
Language Development in Children: http://childdevelopmentinfo.com/child-
development/language_development/
National Association for Bilingual Education: http://www.nabe.org/
National Council of Techers of English:
http://www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/PolicyResearch/ELLResearchBrief.pdf
Noam Chomsky Website: http://www.chomsky.info
Reading Wars: Phonics vs. Whole Language: http://www.edweek.org/ew/issues/reading/
Statistics on Bilingual Education: http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=96
Warning Signs of a Language Delay:
www.babycenter.com/general/toddler/toddlerdevelopment/12293.html
Writing Development in Childhood: http://www.pbs.org/parents/readinglanguage/writing/main.html

Resources Available Within Connect
Listed below is a sampling of the resources available with this chapter within McGraw-Hill
Education’s digital learning platform, Connect.
Chapter Activity Titles Activity Type Learning Objective
9 Bilingualism NewsFlash
Characterize thinking and its
developmental changes.

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Another well-known aspect of this dualism is dogmatism, the
incapacity to understand the concrete particularization of itself by
the spirit in its various activities and forms. This explains the
accusation levelled against ecclesiastical history of overriding and
tyrannically oppressing the whole of the rest of history. This did in
fact take place, because ecclesiastical history, instead of developing
itself in the concrete universal of the spirit, remained rooted in a
particular determination of it. All human values were reduced to a
single value—that is to say, to firmness of Christian faith and to
service of the Church. This value, thus abstractly conceived, became
deprived of its natural virtue and declined to the level of a material
and immobile fact, and indeed the vivid, fluid Christian
consciousness after some centuries of development became
solidified in dogmas. That materialized and motionless dogma
necessarily prevailed as a universal measure, and men of all times
were judged according to whether they had or had not been
touched with the divine grace, were pious or impious, and the lives
of the holy fathers and of believers were a Plutarch, who excluded
every other profane Plutarch. This was the dogmatism of
transcendency, which therefore resolved itself into asceticism, in the
name of which the whole actual history of mankind is covered with
contempt, with horror, and with lamentation. This is particularly
noticeable in Augustine, in Orosius, and in Otto of Frisia, but is to be
perceived at least in germ as a tendency among all the historians or
chroniclers of the early Middle Ages. What thoughts are suggested
by the battle of Thermopylæ to Otto of Frisia? Tædet hic
inextricabilem malorum texere cratem; tamen ad ostendendam
mortalium miseriam, summatim ea attingere volo. And what by the
deeds of Alexander? Regni Macedonum monarchia, quæ al ipso
cœpit, ipso mortuo cum ipso finitur.... Civitas autem Christi firmata
supra firmam petram.... With asceticism is linked the often noted
and often ridiculed credulity of the medieval historians (not to be
confounded with the belief in miracles, originating from religion):
this credulity is generally attributed to the prevalence of imagination,
or to social conditions, which rendered books rare and critical

capacity difficult to find—that is to say, to things which required to
be explained in their turn.
Indifference is, indeed, one of the principal sources of credulity,
because no one is ever credulous in the things that touch him closely
and of which he treats, while on the other hand all (as is proved in
daily life) are ready to lend an ear to more or less indifferent talk.
Asceticism, diminishing the interest for things of the world and for
history, assisted in the neglect and dispersion of books and
documents, promoted credulity toward everything heard or read,
unbridling the imagination, ever desirous of the wonderful and
curious, to the disadvantage of discernment. It did this not only in
history properly so called, but also in the science of nature or natural
history, which was also indifferent to one, who possessed the
ultimate truth of religion. The weak capacity for individualization
noticeable in medieval historiography must be attributed to ascetism,
which is usually satisfied with the general character of goodness or
badness (the 'portrait' is very rare in it, as in the figurative arts of
the same age), and it has even less consciousness of the historical
differences of place and time, travestying persons and events in
contemporary costume. It even goes so far as to compose imaginary
histories and false documents, which portray the supposed type.
This extends from Agnello of Ravenna, who declared that he wrote
also the lives of those bishops of Ravenna about whom he possessed
no information, et credo (he said) non mentitum esse, because, if
they filled so high a past, they must of necessity have been good,
charitable, zealous, and so forth, down to the false decretals of the
pseudo-Isidore. We also owe to asceticism the form of chronicle as
its intimate cause, because, when the meaning of particular facts
was neglected, it only remained to note them as they were observed
or related, without any ideological connexion and with only the
chronological connexion. Thus we frequently find among the
historians of the Middle Ages the union (at first sight strange, yet not
without logical coherence) of a grandiose history, beginning with the
creation of the world and the dispersion of the races, and an arid
chronicle, following the other principle and becoming ever more

particular and more contingent as approach is gradually made to the
times of the authors.
When on the one hand the two cities, the heavenly and the earthly,
and on the other the transcendency of the principle of explanation
had been conceived, the composition of dualism could not be sought
for in intelligence, but in myth, which put an end to the strife with
the triumph of one of the two adversaries: the myth of the fall, of
the redemption, of the expected reign of Christ, of the Last
Judgment, and of the final separation of the two cities, one
ascending to Paradise with the elect, the other driven back into hell
with the wicked. This mythology had its precedent in the Judaic
expectations of a Messiah, and also, from some points of view, in
Orphism, and continued to develop through gnosis, millenarism, and
other heretical tentatives and heresies, until it took a definite or
almost a definite form in St Augustine. It has been remarked that in
this conception metaphysic became identified with history, as an
entirely new thought, altogether opposed to Greek thought, and that
it is a philosophical contribution altogether novel and proper to
Christianity. But we must add here that, as mythology, it did not
unite, but indeed confounded, metaphysic and history, making the
finite infinite, avoiding the fallacy of the circle as perpetual return of
things, but falling into the other fallacy of a progress beginning and
ending in time. History was therefore arranged in spiritual epochs or
phases, through which humanity was born, grew up, and attained
completion: there were six, seven, or eight epochs, according to the
various ways of dividing and calculating, which sometimes
corresponded to the ages of human life, sometimes to the days of
the creation, sometimes to both these schemes combined; or where
the hermeneutic of St Jerome upon the Book of Daniel was
accepted, the succession of events was distributed among the four
monarchies, of which the last was the Roman, not only in order of
time, but also in that of the idea, because after the Roman Empire
(the Middle Ages, as we know, long nourished the illusion that that
empire persisted in the form of the Holy Roman Empire) there would
be nothing else, and the reign of Christ or of the Church and then of

Antichrist and the universal judgment were expected to follow
without any intermission. The end which history had not yet reached
chronologically, being also intrinsic to the system, was ideally
constructible, as the Apocalypses had already ideally constructed it,
pervading theological works and even histories, which in their last
section (see the works of Otto of Frisia for all of them) described the
coming of Antichrist and the end of the world: hence the idea of a
history of things future, continued by the paradoxical Francesco
Patrizzi, who gave utterance to his theory in the sixteenth century in
his dialogues Upon History (1560). This general historical picture
might be here and there varied in its particulars, but never shattered
and confuted; it varied in orthodoxy up to the time of Augustine, and
afterward among the dissentients and the heretics: most noteworthy
of these variations was the Eternal Evangel of the followers of
Gioacchino di Flora, who divided history into three epochs,
corresponding to the three persons of the Trinity: the first that of the
Old Testament or of the Father, the second that of the New
Testament or of the Son, the third and last, that of the Spirit. These
are but artificial combinations and transactions, by means of which
life always seeks to find a passage between the preconceived
schemes which compress and threaten to suffocate it.
But such transactions did not avail to get the better of the discord
between reality and plan which everywhere revealed itself. Hence
the necessity of the allegorical interpretation, so dear to the Middle
Ages. This consisted substantially in placing an imaginary figure
between the plan and the historical reality, a mixture of both, like a
bridge, but a bridge which could be crossed only in imagination.
Thus personages and events of sacred and profane history were
allegorized, and subtle numerical calculations made and continually
reinforced with new imaginary contributions, in order to discover
correspondences and parallelisms; and not only were the ages of life
and the days of creation placed on a parallel line with historical
epochs, but so also were the virtues and other conceptions. Such
notions are still to be found in books of devotion and in the
preaching of the less acute and less modernized of sacred orators.

The 'reign of nature' was also included in allegorical interpretation;
and since history and metaphysic had been set at variance with one
another, so in like manner was natural science set at variance with
both of them, and all appeared together in allegorical forms in the
medieval encyclopædias, the Pantheons and Mirrors of the World.
Notwithstanding these inevitable strayings, the new idea of history
as the spiritual drama of humanity, although it inclined toward myth,
yet acted with such energy as to weaken the ancient heteronomous
conception of history as directed toward the administration of
abstract instruction, useful in actual practice. History itself was now
the teaching, the knowledge of the life of the human race from its
creation upon the earth, through its struggles, up to its final state,
which was indicated in the near or remote horizon. History thus
became the work of God, teaching by His direct word and presence,
which is to be seen and heard in every part of it. Declarations are
certainly not wanting, indeed they abound, that the reading of
histories is useful as counselling, and particularly as inculcating,
good behaviour and abstention from evil. Sometimes it is a question
of traditional and conventional declarations, at others of particular
designs: but medieval historiography was not conceived, because it
could not be conceived, heteronomously.
If asceticism mortified minds, and if the miraculous clouded them, it
is not necessary to believe, on the other hand, that either had the
power to depress reality altogether and for a long period. Indeed,
precisely because asceticism was arbitrary, and mythology imaginary,
they remained more or less abstract, in the same way as allegorical
interpretation, which was impotent to suppress the real
determinations of fact. It was all very well to despise and condemn
the earthly city in words, but it forced itself upon the attention, and
if it did not speak to the intellect it spoke to the souls and to the
passions of men. In its period of youthful vigour, also, Christianity
was obliged to tolerate profane history, dictated by economic,
political, and military interests, side by side with sacred history. And
as in the course of the Middle Ages, in addition to the religious
poetry of the sacred hymns and poems, there also existed an epic of

territorial conquests, of the shock of peoples and of feudal strife, so
there continued to exist a worldly history, more or less mingled and
tempered with religious history. We find even fervent Christians and
the most pious of priests yielding to the desire of collecting and
handing down the memory of their race: thus Gregory of Tours told
of the Franks, Paulus Diaconus of the Lombards, Bede of the Angles,
Widekind of the Saxons. Their gentle hearts of political partisans do
not cease to beat. Not only do they lament the misery and
wickedness of humanity in general, but also give vent to their
particular feelings, as we observe, for instance, in the monk
Erchempertus, who, ex intimo corde ducens alta suspiria, resumes
the thread of Paul's history to narrate the deeds of his glorious
Lombards (now hunted back into the southern part of Italy alone
and assaulted and imbushed on every side), non regnum sed
excidium, non felicitatem sed miseriam, non triumphum sed
perniciem. And Liutprand of Cremona, although he makes the deity
intervene as ruler and punisher on every occasion, and even the
saints in person do battle, does not fail, for instance, to note that
when Berengarius proceeded to take possession of the kingdom
after the death of Guido, the followers of the latter called for King
Lambert, quia semper Itali geminis uti dominis volunt, quatinus
alterum alterius terrore coherceant: which is also the definition of
feudal society. They were most credulous in many things, far from
profound and abandoned to their imagination, but they were not
credulous, indeed they were clear-sighted, shrewd and diffident in
what concerned the possessions and privileges of the churches and
monasteries, of families, and of the feudal group and the order of
citizenship to which each belonged. It is to these interests that we
owe the formation of archives, registers, chronologies, and the
exercise of criticism as to the authenticity and genuineness of
documents. The conception of the new Christian virtue oppressed,
but did not quench, admiration (though held sinful by the most
severe) for the great name of ancient Rome, and the many works of
pagan civilization, its eloquence, its poetry, its civil wisdom. Nor did
it forbid admiration for Arabic or Judaic-Arabic wisdom, of which the
works were well received, notwithstanding religious strife. Hence we

may say that in the same way as Græco-Roman humanism did not
altogether exclude the supernatural, so the Christian supernatural
did not prevent human consideration of worldly passions and earthly
transactions.
This becomes more and more evident as we pass from the early to
the late Middle Ages, when profane historiography progresses, as
the result of the struggles between Church and State, of the
communal movement, of the more frequent commercial
communications between Europe and the East, and the like. These
are themselves the result of the development, the maturing, and the
modernization of thought, which grows with life and makes life grow.
Neither life nor thought remained attached to the conceptions of the
fathers of the Church, of Augustine, of Orosius, to whom history
offered nothing but the proof of the infinite evils that afflict
humanity, of the unceasing punishments of God, and of the "deaths
of the persecutors." In Otto of Frisia himself, who holds more firmly
than the others to the doctrines of Augustine, we find the asperity of
doctrine tempered by grace; and when he afterward proceeds to
narrate the struggle between the Church and the Empire, if it cannot
be said that he takes the side of the Empire, it also cannot be said
that he resolutely defends that of the Church, for the eschatological
visions that form so great a part of his work do not blind his practical
sense and political judgment. The party of the faith against the
faithless remained, however, always the 'great party,' the great
'struggle of classes' (elect and reprobate) and of 'states' (celestial
and earthly cities). But within this large framework we perceive
other figures more closely particularized, other parties and interests,
which gradually come to occupy the first, second, and third planes,
so that the struggle between God and the devil is forced ever more
and more into the background and becomes somewhat vague,
something always assumed to be present, but not felt to be active
and urgent in the soul, as something which is still talked of, but is
not deeply felt, or at least felt with the energy that the words would
wish us to believe, the words themselves often sounding like a
refrain, as pious as it is conventional. The miraculous gradually fills

less and less space and appears more rarely: God acts more willingly
by means of secondary causes, and respects natural laws; He rarely
intervenes directly in a revolutionary manner. The form of the
chronicles, too, becomes also less accidental and arid, the better
among the chroniclers here and there seeking a different 'order'—
that is to say, really, a better understanding—and we find
(particularly from the thirteenth century onward) the ordo artificialis
or internal opposed to the ordo naturalis or external chronological
order. There are also to be found those who distinguish between the
sub singulis annis describere and the sub stilo historico conglutinare
—that is to say, the grouping together according to things described.
The general aspect of historiography changes not a little. Limiting
ourselves to Italian historiography alone, there are no longer little
books upon the miracles and the translations of the bodies of saints
and bishops, but chronicles of communes, all of them full of
affection for the feudal superiors or for the archbishop, for the
imperial or the anti-imperial side, for Milan or for Bergamo, or for
Lodi. The sense of tragedy, which weighed so heavily upon
Erchempertus, returns with new and stronger accents in the
narrative of the deeds of Barbarossa at Milan, entitled Libellus
tristititiæ et doloris, angustiæ et tribulationis, passionum et
tormentorum. Love for one's city usurps much of the space
previously devoted to things celestial, and praises of Milan, of
Bergamo, of Venice, of Amalfi, of Naples, resound in the pages of
their chroniclers. Thus those vast chronicles are reached which,
although they begin with the Tower of Babel, yet lead to the history
of that city or of that event which makes the strongest appeal to the
feelings and best stimulates the industry of the writer, and become
mingled with the persons and things of the present or future life.
Giovanni Villani, a pilgrim to Rome to celebrate the papal jubilee, is
not inspired with the ascetic spirit or raised to heaven by that
solemn spectacle; but, on the contrary, "since he finds himself in the
holy city of Rome on that blessed pilgrimage, inspecting its great
and ancient possessions, and reading the histories and the great
deeds of the Romans," he is inspired to compose the history of his
native Fiorenza, "daughter and creation of Rome" (of ancient Rome

prior to Christianity). His Fiorenza resembled Rome in its rise to
greatness and its following after great things, and was like Rome in
its fall. Thus the 'holy' and the 'blessed' do not lead him to holy and
blessed thoughts, but to thoughts of worldly greatness. To the
historiography of the communes answers the more seriously worldly,
the more formally and historically elaborated historiography of the
Norman and Suabian kingdom of Sicily. In the proem to its
Constitutiones sovereigns are declared to be instituted ipsa rerum
necessitate cogente, nec minus divinæ provisionis instinctu; with its
Romualdo Guarna, its Abbot Telesino, its Malaterra, its Hugo
Falcando and Pietro da Eboli, its Riccardo da San Germano, with the
pseudo-Jamsilla, and Saba Malaspina. All of these have their heroes,
Roger and William the Normans, Frederick and Manfred the
Suabians, and what they praise in them is the sound political basis
which they knew how to establish and to maintain with a firm hand.
Eo tempore, says Falcando of Roger, Regnum Sicilia, strenuis et
præclaris viris abundans, cum terra marique plurimum posset, vicinis
circumquoque gentibus terrorem incusserat, summaque pace ac
tranquillitate maxima fruebatur. And the so-called Jamsilla, of
Frederick II: Vir fuit magni cordis, sed magnanitatem suam multa,
qua in eo fuit, sapientia superavit, ut nequaquam impetus eum ad
aliquid faciendum impelleret, sed ad omnia cum rationis maturitate
procederet;... utpote qui philosophisæ studiosus erat quam et ipse in
se coluit, et in regno suo propagare ordinavit. Tunc quidem ipsius
felici tempore in regno Siciliæ erant litterati pauci vel nulli; ipse vero
imperator liberalium artium et omnis approbatæ scientia scholas in
regno ipso constituit ... ut omnis conditionis et fortuna homines
nullius occasione indigentiæ a philosophiæ studio retraherentur. The
state, profane culture, 'philosophy,' impersonated in the heresiarch
Frederick, are thus set in clear relief. And while on the one hand
more and more laical theories of the state become joined to these
political and cultural currents (from Dante, indeed from Thomas
Aquinas, to Marsilio of Padua), and the first outlines of literary
history (lives of the poets and of men famous for their knowledge,
and the rise of vernacular literatures) and histories of manners (as in
certain passages in Ricobaldo of Ferrara), on the other hand

scholasticism found its way to such problems and conceptions by
means of the works of Aristotle, which represented as it were a first
brief summary of ancient knowledge. It is unnecessary to say that
Dante's poem is the chief monument of this condition of spirit,
where the ideas of the Middle Ages are maintained, but the political,
poetical, and philosophical affections, the love of fame and of glory,
prove their vigour, although subordinated to those ideas and
restrained, as far as possible, by them.
But those ideas are nevertheless maintained, even among the
imperialists and adversaries of the Church, and it is only in rare
spirits that we find a partly sceptical and partly mocking negation of
them. Transcendency, the prescience of God, Who ordains, directs,
and disposes of everything according to His will, bestows rewards
and punishments, and intervenes mysteriously, always maintains its
place in the distant background, in Dante as in Giovanni Villani, as in
all the historians and chroniclers. Toward the close of the fifteenth
century the theological conception makes a curious appearance in
the French historian Comines, arm in arm with the most alert and
unprejudiced policy of success at all costs. Worldliness, so rich, so
various, and so complex, was yet without an ideal standard of
comparison, and for this reason it was rather lived than thought,
showing itself rather in richness of detail than systematically. The
ancient elements of culture, which had passed from Aristotelianism
into scholasticism, failed to act powerfully, because that part of
Aristotelianism was particularly selected which was in harmony with
Christian thought already translated into Platonic terms and
dogmatized in a transcendental form by the fathers of the Church.
Hence it has even been possible to note a pause in historiographical
interest, where scholasticism has prevailed, a compendium of the
type of that of Martin Polonus being held sufficient to serve the end
of quotations for demonstration or for legal purposes. What was
required upon entering a new period of progress (there is always
progress, but 'periods of progress' are those in which the motion of
the spirit seems to become accelerated and the fruit that has been
growing ripe for centuries is rapidly plucked) was a direct conscious

negation of transcendency and of Christian miracle, of ascesis and of
eschatology, both in life and in thought a negation whose terms
(heavenly and earthly life) had certainly been noted by medieval
historiography, but had been allowed to endure and to progress, the
one beside the other, without true and proper contact and conflict
arising between them.
IV
THE HISTORIOGRAPHY OF THE RENAISSANCE
The negation of Christian transcendency was the work of the age of
the Renaissance, when, to employ the expression used by Fueter,
historiography became 'secularized.' In the histories of Leonardo
Bruni and of Bracciolini, who gave the first conspicuous examples of
the new attitude of historiographical thought, and in all others of the
same sort which followed them—among them those of Machiavelli
and of Guicciardini shine forth conspicuously—we find hardly any
trace of 'miracles.' These are recorded solely with the intention of
mocking at them and of explaining them in an altogether human
manner. An acute analysis of individual characters and interests is
substituted for the intervention of divine providence and the actions
of the popes, and religious strifes themselves are apt to be
interpreted according to utilitarian passions and solely with an eye to
their political bearing. The scheme of the four monarchies with the
advent of Antichrist connected with it is allowed to disappear;
histories are now narrated ab inclinatione imperii, and even universal
histories, like the Enneads of Sabellicus, do not adhere to traditional
ecclesiastical tradition. Chronicles of the world, universal miraculous
histories, both theological and apocalyptic, become the literature of
the people and of those with little culture, or persist in countries of
backward culture, such as Germany at that time, or finally are
limited to the circle of Catholic or Protestant confessional

historiography, both of which retain so much of the Middle Ages, the
Protestant perhaps more than the Catholic (at least at a first glance),
for the latter contrived at least here and there to temporize and to
accommodate itself to the times. All this is shown very clearly and
minutely by Fueter, and I shall now proceed to take certain
observations and some information from his book, which I shall
rearrange and complete with some more of my own. In the political
historiography of the late Middle Ages, the theological conception
had been, as we have said, thrown into the background; but
henceforward it is not to be found even there, and if at times we
hear its formulas, they are just like those of the Crusade against the
Turks, preaching the liberation of the tomb of Christ. These were still
repeated by preachers, writers of verse, and rhetoricians (and
continued to be repeated for three centuries), but they found no
response in political reality and in the conscience of the people,
because they were but empty sound. Nor was the negation of
theologism and the secularization of history accomplished only in
practice, unaccompanied with complete consciousness; for, although
many minds really did turn in the direction indicated by fate, or in
other words by the new mental necessity, and although the polemic
was not always open, but on the contrary often surrounded with
many precautions, evidence abounds of the agreement of the
practice with the theory of historiography. The criticism of so grave a
theorist of history as Bodin is opposed to the scheme of the four
monarchies. He makes it his object to combat the inveteratum
errorem de quattuor imperiis, proving that the notion was
capriciously taken from the dream of Daniel, and that it in no way
corresponded with the real course of events. It would be superfluous
to record here the celebrated epigrams of Machiavelli and of
Guicciardini, who satirized theology and miracles. Guicciardini noted
that all religions have boasted of miracles, and therefore they are
not proofs of any one of them, and are perhaps nothing but "secrets
of nature." He advised his readers never to say that God had aided
so-and-so because he was good and had made so-and-so suffer
because he was wicked, for we "often see the opposite," and the
counsels of divine providence are in fact an abyss. Paolo Sarpi,

although he admits that "it is a pious and religious thought to
attribute the disposition of every event to divine providence," yet
holds it "presumption" to determine "to what end events are
directed by that highest wisdom"; for men, being emotionally
attached to their opinions, "are persuaded that they are as much
loved and favoured by God as by themselves." Hence, for example,
they argued that God had caused Zwingli and Hecolampadius to die
almost at the same time, in order that he might punish and remove
the ministers of discord, whereas it is certain that "after the death of
these two, the evangelical cantons have made greater progress in
the doctrine that they received from both of them." Such a
disposition of religious and cautious spirits is yet more significant
than that of the radical and impetuous, openly irreverent, in the
same way as the new importance attributed to history is notable in
the increase of historiographical labour that is then everywhere
noticeable, and in the formation of a true and proper philological
school, not only for antiquity, but for the Middle Ages (Valla, Flavio
Biondo, Calchi, Sigonio, Beato Renano, etc.), which publishes and
restores texts, criticizes the authenticity and the value of sources, is
occupied with the establishment of a technical method of examining
witnesses, and composes learned histories.
Nothing is more natural than that the new form of historiography
should seem to be a return to Græco-Roman antiquity, as
Christianity had seemed to be a return to the story of Eden (the
interlude of paganism having been brought to an end by the
redemption), or that the Middle Ages should still seem to some to-
day to be a falling back into barbarous pre-Hellenic times. The
illusion of the return was expressed in the cult of classical antiquity,
and in all those manifestations, literary, artistic, moral, and
customary, familiar to those who know the Renaissance. In the
special field with which we are at present occupied, we find a
curious document in support of the difficulty that philologists and
critics experienced in persuading themselves that the Greek and
Roman writers had perhaps been able to deceive themselves, to lie,
to falsify, to be led astray by passions and blinded by ignorance, in

the same way as those of the Middle Ages. Thus the latter were
severely criticized while the former were reverenced and accepted,
for it needed much time and labour to attain to an equal mental
freedom regarding the ancients, and the criticism of texts and of
sources was developed in respect to medieval history long before it
attained to a like freedom in respect to ancient history. But the
greatest proof and monument of the illusion of the return was the
formation of the humanistic type of historiography, opposed to the
medieval. This had been chiefly confined to the form of chronicle
and humanistic historiography, although it accepted the arrangement
by years and seasons according to the examples set by the Greeks
and Romans, cancelled as far as possible numerical indications, and
exerted itself to run on unbrokenly, without chronological cuts and
cross-cuts. Latin had become barbarous in the Middle Ages and had
accepted the vocabularies of vulgar tongues, or those which
designated new things in a new way, whereas the humanistic
historiographers translated and disguised every thought and every
narrative in Ciceronian Latin, or at least Latin of the Golden Age. We
frequently find picturesque anecdotes in the medieval chronicles,
and humanism, while it restored its dignity to history, deprived it of
that picturesque element, or attenuated and polished it as it had
done the things and customs of the barbaric centuries. This
humanistic type of historiography, like the new philological erudition
and criticism and the whole movement of the Renaissance, was
Italian work, and in Italy histories in the vulgar tongue were soon
modelled upon it, which found in the latinized prose of Boccaccio an
instrument well suited to their ends. From Italy it was diffused
among other countries, and as always happens when an industry is
transplanted into virgin soil, and workmen and technical experts are
invited to come from the country of its origin, so the first humanistic
historians of the other parts of Europe were Italians. Paolo Emilio the
Veronese, who Gallis condidit historias, gave the French the
humanistic history of France in his De rebus gestis Francorum, and
Polydore Virgil did the like for England, Lucio Marineo for Spain, and
many others for other countries, until indigenous experts appeared
and the aid of Italians became unnecessary. Later on it became

necessary to throw off this cloak, which was too loose or too tight—
indeed, was not cut to the model of modern thought. What there
was in it of artificial, of swollen, of false, was blamed—these defects
being indeed clearly indicated in the constructive principle of this
literary form, which was that of imitation. But anyone with a feeling
for the past will enjoy that historical humanistic prose as the
expression of love for antiquity and of the desire to rise to its level.
This love and this desire were so keen that they had no hesitation in
reproducing things external and indifferent in addition to what was
better and sometimes in default of it. Giambattista Vico, sometimes
so sublimely puerile, is still found lamenting, three centuries after
the creation of humanistic historiography, that "no sovereign has
been found into whose mind has entered the thought of preserving
for ever in the best Latin style a record of the famous War of the
Spanish Succession, than which a greater has never happened in the
world since the Second Carthaginian War, that of Cæsar with
Pompey, and of Alexander with Darius." But what of this? Quite
recently, during the war in Tripoli, came the proposal from the
depths of one of the meridional provinces of Italy, one of those little
countrysides where the shadow of a humanist still exists, that a
Latin commentary should be composed upon that war entitled De
bello libico. This proposal was received with much laughter and
made even me smile, yet the smile was accompanied with a sort of
tender emotion, when I recalled how long and devotedly our fathers
and forefathers had pursued the ideal of a beautiful antiquity and of
a decorous historiography.
Nevertheless, the belief in the effectivity or possibility of such a
return was, as we have said, an illusion; nothing of what has been
returns, nothing of what has been can be abolished; even when we
return to an old thought the new adversary makes the defence new
and the thought itself new. I read some time ago the work of a
learned French Catholic. While clearing the Middle Ages of certain
absurd accusations and confuting errors commonly circulated about
them, he maintained that the Middle Ages are the truly modern time,
modern with the eternal modernity of the true, and that therefore

they should not be called the Middle Ages, which term should be
applied to the period that has elapsed between the fifteenth century
and our own day, between the Reformation and positivism. As I
read, I reflected that such a theory is the worthy pendant to that
other theory, which places the Middle Ages beneath antiquity, and
that both had some time ago shown themselves false to historical
thought, which knows nothing of returns, but knows that the Middle
Ages preserved antiquity deep in its heart as the Renaissance
preserved the Middle Ages. And what is 'humanism' but a renewed
formula of that 'humanity' of which the ancient world knew little or
nothing, and which Christianity and the Middle Ages had so
profoundly felt? What is the word 'renaissance' or 'renewal' but a
metaphor taken from the language of religion? And setting aside the
word, is not the conception of humanism perhaps the affirmation of
a spiritual and universal value, and in so far as it is that, altogether
foreign, as we know, to the mind of antiquity, and an intrinsic
continuation of the 'ecclesiastical' and 'spiritual' history which
appeared with Christianity? The conception of spiritual value had
without doubt become changed or enriched, for it contained within
itself more than a thousand years of mental experiences, thoughts,
and actions. But while it thus grew more rich, it preserved its original
character, and constituted the religion of the new times, with its
priests and martyrs, its polemic and its apologetic, its intolerance (it
destroyed or allowed to perish the monuments of the Middle Ages
and condemned its writers to oblivion), and sometimes even
imitated the forms of its worship (Navagaro used to burn a copy of
Martial every year as a holocaust to pure Latinity). And since
humanity, philosophy, science, literature, and especially art, politics,
activity in all its forms, now fill that conception of value which the
Middle Ages had placed in Christian religious faith alone, histories or
outlines of histories continue to appear as the outcome of these
determinations, which were certainly new in respect to medieval
literature, but were not less new in respect to Græco-Roman
literature, where there was nothing to compare to them, or only
treatises composed in an empirical and extrinsic manner. The new
histories of values presented them selves timidly, imitating in certain

respects the few indent examples, but they gave evidence of a
fervour, an intelligence, an afflatus, which led to a hope for that
increase and development wanting to their predecessors, which,
instead of developing, had gradually become more superficial and
finally disappeared again into vagueness. Suffice it to mention as
representative of them all Vasari's Lives of the Painters, which are
connected with the meditations and the researches upon art
contained in so many treatises, dialogues, and letters of Italians, and
are here and there shot through with flashes such as never shone in
antiquity. The same may be said of treatises on poetry and rhetoric,
and of the judgments which they contain as to poetry and of the
new history of poetry, then being attempted with more or less
successful results. The 'state' too, which forms the object of the
meditations of Machiavelli, is not the simple state of antiquity, city or
empire, but is almost the national state felt as something divine, to
which even the salvation of the soul must be sacrificed—that is to
say, as the institution in which the true salvation of the soul is to be
found. Even the pagan virtue which he and others opposed to
Christian virtue is very different from the pure Græco-Roman
disposition of mind. At that time a start was also made in the
direction of investigating the theory of rights, of political forms, of
myths and beliefs, of philosophical systems, to-day in full flower. And
since that same consciousness which had produced humanism had
also widened the boundaries of the known world, and had sought for
and found people of whom the Bible preserved no record and of
whom the Græco-Roman writers knew nothing, there appeared at
that time a literature relating to savages and to the indigenous
civilizations of America (and also of distant Asia, which had been
better explored), from which arose the first notions as to the
primitive forms of human life. Thus were widened the spiritual
boundaries of humanity at the same time as the material.
We are not alone in perceiving the illusion of the 'return to antiquity,'
for the men of the Renaissance were not slow in doing this. Not
every one was content to suit himself to the humanistic literary type.
Some, like Machiavelli, threw away that cloak, too ample in its folds

and in its train, preferring to it the shorter modern dress. Protests
against pedantry and imitation are indeed frequently to be heard
during the course of the century. Philosophers rebelled against
Aristotle (first against the medieval and then against the ancient
Aristotle), and appeals were made to truth, which is superior both to
Plato and to Aristotle; men of letters advocated the new 'classes,'
and artists repeated that the great masters were 'nature' and the
'idea.' One feels in the air that the time is not far distant when the
question, "Who are the true ancients?"—that is to say, "Who are the
intellectually expert and mature?"—will be answered with, "We are";
the symbol of antiquity will be broken and there will be found within
it the reality which is human thought, ever new in its manifestations.
Such an answer may possibly be slow in becoming clear and certain
as an object of common conviction, though it will eventually become
so, and now suffices to explain the true quality of that return
antiquity, by preventing the taking of the symbol for the thing
symbolized.
This symbolical covering, cause of prejudices and
misunderstandings, which enfolded the whole of humanism, was not
the sole vice from which the historiography of the Renaissance
suffered. We do not, of course, speak here of the bias with which all
histories were variously affected, according as they were written by
men of letters who were also courtiers and supported the interests
of their masters, or official historians of aristocratic and conservative
states like Venice, or men taking one or the other side in the
conflicts within the same state, such as the ottimani (or aristocratic)
and the popular party of Florence, or upholders of opposed religious
beliefs, such as the group of reformed divines of Magdeburg and
Baronio. We do not speak here of the historians who became story-
writers (they sometimes take to history, like Bandello), or of those
who collected information with a view to exciting curiosity and
creating scandal. These are things that belong to all periods, and are
not sufficient to qualify a particular historiographical age. But if we
examine only that which is or wished to be historical thought, the
historiography of the Renaissance suffered from two other defects,

each of which it had inherited from one of its progenitors, antiquity
and the Middle Ages. And above all there came to it from antiquity
the humanistic-abstract or pragmatical conception, as it is called,
which inclines to explain facts by the individual in his singularity and
in his atomism, or by means of abstract political forms, and the like.
For Machiavelli, the prince is not only the ideal but the criterion that
he adopts for the explanation of events. He does not only appear in
his treatises and political opuscules, but in the Florentine Histories,
where we meet with him at the very beginning—after the terrible
imaginative description of the condition of Italy in the fifth century—
in the great figure of Theodoric, by whose 'virtue' and 'goodness' not
only Rome and Italy, but all the other parts of the Western empire,
"arose free from the continual scourgings which they had supported
for so many years from so many invasions, and became again happy
and well-ordered communities." The same figure reappears in many
different forms in the course of the centuries described in those
histories. Finally, at the end of the description of the social struggles
of Florence, we read that "this city had reached such a point that it
could be easily adapted to any form of government by a wise law-
giver." In like manner, the History of Italy by Guicciardini begins with
the description of the happiness of Italy at the end of the fifteenth
century, "acquired at various times and preserved for many
reasons," not the least of which was "the industry and genius of
Lorenzo de' Medici," who "strove in every way so to balance Italian
affairs that they should not incline more in one direction than
another." He had allies in Ferdinand of Aragon and Ludovic the Moor,
"partly for the same and partly for other reasons," and the Venetians
were held in check by all three of them. This perfect system of
equilibrium was broken by the deaths of Lorenzo, of Ferdinand, and
of the Pope. All historians of this period express themselves in the
same way, and although a lively consciousness of the spiritual values
of humanity was in process of formation, as has been seen, yet
these were spoken of as though they depended upon the will and
the intelligence of individuals who were their masters, not the
contrary. In the history of painting, for example, the 'prince' for
Vasari is Giotto, "who, although born among inexpert artisans, alone

revived painting and reduced it to such a form as might be described
as good." Biographies are also constantly individualistic, for they
never succeed in perfectly uniting the individual with the work which
he creates and which in turn creates him.
The idea of chance or fortune persisted alongside the pragmatic
conception, its ancient companion. Machiavelli assigns the course of
events half to fortune and half to human prudence, and although the
accent falls here upon prudence, the acknowledgment of the one
does not abolish the force of the other, so mysterious and
transcendent. Guicciardini attacks those who, while attributing
everything to prudence and virtue, exclude "the power of fortune,"
because we see that human affairs "receive at all times great
impulsions from fortuitous events, which it is not within the power of
man either to foresee or to escape, and although the care and
understanding of man may moderate many things, nevertheless that
alone does not suffice, but good fortune is also necessary." It is true
that here and there there seems to appear another conception in
Machiavelli, that of the strength and logic of things, but it is only a
fleeting shadow. It is also a shadow for Guicciardini, when he adds
that even if we wish to attribute everything to prudence and virtue,
"must at least admit that it is necessary to fall upon or be born in
times when the virtues or qualities for which you value yourself are
esteemed." Guicciardini remains perplexed as to one point only, as
though he had caught a glimpse of something that is neither caprice
of the individual nor contingency of fortune: "When I consider to
what accidents and dangers of illness, of chance, of violence, of
infinite sorts, is exposed the life of man, the concurrence of how
many things is needful that the harvest of the year should be good,
nothing surprises me more than to see an old man or a good
harvest." But even here we do not get beyond uncertainty, which in
this case manifests itself as astonishment. With the renewal of the
idea of fortune, even to a partial extent, with the restitution of the
cult of this pagan divinity, not only does the God of Christianity
disappear, but also the idea of rationality, of finality, of development,
affirmed during the medieval period. The ancient Oriental idea of the

circle in human affairs returns; it dominated all the historians of the
Renaissance, and above all Machiavelli. History is an alternation of
lives and deaths, of goods and ills, of happiness and misery, of
splendour and decadence. Vasari understands the history of painting
in the same way as that of all the arts, which, "like human bodies,
have their birth, their growth, their old age, and their death." He is
solicitous of preserving in his book the memory of the artistic
capacity of his time, lest the art of painting, "either owing to the
neglect of men or to the malignity of the ages or to decree of
heaven (which does not appear to wish to maintain things here
below for long in the same state), should encounter the same
disorder and ruin" as befell it in the Middle Ages. Bodin, while
criticizing and rejecting the scheme of the four monarchies, and
demonstrating the fallaciousness of the assertion that gold
deteriorates into copper, or even into clay, and celebrating the
splendour of letters, of commerce, of the geographical discoveries of
his age, does not, however, conclude in favour of progress, but of
the circle, blaming those who find everything inferior in antiquity,
cum, æterna quadam lege naturæ, conversiti omnium rerum velut in
orbem redire videatur, ut aqua vitia virtutibus, ignoratio scientiæ,
turpe honesto consequens sit, ac tenebræ luci. The sad, bitter,
pessimistic tone which we observe among ancient historians, which
sometimes bursts forth into the tragic, is also often to be met with
among the historians of the Renaissance, for they saw perish many
things that were very dear to them, and were constrained to tremble
for those which they still enjoyed, or at least to fear for them by
anticipation, certain that sooner or later they would yield their place
to their contraries.
And since history thus conceived does not represent progress but a
circle, and is not directed by the historical law of development, but
by the natural law of the circle, which gives it regularity and
uniformity, it follows that the historiography of the Renaissance, like
the Græco-Roman, has its end outside itself, and affords nothing but
material suitable for exhortations toward the useful and the good,
for various forms of pleasure or as ornament for abstract truths.

Historians and theorists of history are all in agreement as to this,
with the exception of such eccentrics as Patrizzi, who expressed
doubts as to the utility of knowing what had happened and as to the
truth itself of narratives, but ended by contradicting himself and also
laying down an extrinsic end. "Each one of us can find, both on his
own account and on that of the public weal, many useful documents
in the knowledge of these so different and so important examples,"
writes Guicciardini in the proem to his History of Italy. "Hence will
clearly appear, as the result of innumerable examples, the instability
of things human, how harmful they are often wont to be to
themselves, but ever to the people, the ill-conceived counsels of
those who rule, when, having only before their eyes either vain
errors or present cupidities, they are not mindful of the frequent
variations of fortune, and converting the power that has been
granted them for the common weal into an injury to others, they
become the authors of new perturbations, either as the result of lack
of prudence or of too much ambition." And Bodin holds that non
solum præsentia commode explicantur, sed etiam futura colliguntur,
certissimaque rerum expetendarum ac fugiendarum præcepta
constantur, from historical narratives. Campanella thinks that history
should be composed ut sit scientiarum fundamentum sufficiens;
Vossius formulates the definition that was destined to appear for
centuries in treatises: cognitio singularium, quorum memoriam
conservari utile sit ad bene beateque vivendum. Historical knowledge
therefore seemed at that time to be the lowest and easiest form of
knowledge (and this view has been held down to our own days); to
such an extent that Bodin, in addition to the utilitas and the
oblectatio, also recognized to history facilitas, so great a facility ut,
sine ullius artis adjumento, ipsa per sese ab omnibus intelligatur.
When truth had been placed outside historical narrative, all the
historians of the Renaissance, like their Greek and Roman
predecessors, practised, and all the theorists (from Pontanus in the
Actius to Vossius in the Ars historica) defended, the use of more or
less imaginary orations and exhortations, not only as the result of
bowing to ancient example, but through their own convictions.
Eventually M. de la Popelinière, in his Histoire des histoires, avec

l'idée de l'histoire accomplie (1599), where he inculcates in turn
historical exactitude and sincerity with such warm eloquence,
suddenly turns round to defend imaginary harangues et concions,
for this fine reason, that what is necessary is 'truth' and not 'the
words' in which it is expressed! The truth of history was thus not
history, but oratory and political science; and if the historians of the
Renaissance were hardly ever able to exercise oratory (for which the
political constitution of the time allowed little scope), all or nearly all
were authors of treatises upon political science, differently inspired
as compared with those of the Middle Ages, which had ethical and
religious thought behind them, resuming and advancing the
speculations of Aristotle and of ancient political writers. In like
manner, treatises on historical art, unknown to the Middle Ages, but
which rapidly multiplied in the Renaissance (see a great number of
them in the Penus artis historicæ of 1579), resumed and fertilized
the researches of Græco-Roman theorists. It is to be expected that
the historiography of this period should represent some of the
defects of medieval historiography in another form, owing to its
character of reaction already mentioned and to the new divinity that
it had raised up upon the altars in place of the ancient divinity,
humanity. The Renaissance everywhere reveals its effort to oppose
the one term to the other, and since scholasticism had sought the
things of God and of the soul, it wished to restrict itself to the things
of nature. We find Guicciardini and a chorus of others describing the
investigations of philosophers and theologians and "of all those who
write things above nature or such as are not seen" as 'madnesses';
and because scholasticism had defined science in the Aristotelian
manner as de universalibus, Campanella opposed to this definition
his Scientia est de singularibus. In like manner its men of letters,
prejudiced in favour of Latin, at first refused to recognize the new
languages that had been formed during the Middle Ages, as well as
medieval literature and poetry; its jurists rejected the feudal in
favour of the Roman legal code, its politicians representative forms
in favour of absolute lordship and monarchy. It was then that first
appeared the conception of the Middle Ages as a whole, opposed to
another whole, formed of the ancient and the ancient-modern, into

which the Middle Ages were inserted like an irksome and painful
wedge. The word 'medieval' was certainly late in appearing as an
official designation, employed in the divisions and titles of histories
(toward the end of the seventeenth century, as it would seem, in the
manuals of Cellario); previously it had only just occurred here and
there; but the thought contained in it had been in the air for some
time—that is to say, in the soul of everybody—eked out with other
words, such as 'barbarous' or 'Gothic' ages, and Vasari expresses it
by means of the distinction between ancient and 'old,' calling those
things ancient which occurred before the existence of Constantine,
of Corinth, of Athens, of Rome, and of other very famous cities built
up to the time of Nero, of the Vespasians, of Trajan, Hadrian, and
Antoninus, and 'old' those "which had their origin from St Silvester
onward." In any case, the distinction was clear: on the one hand
most brilliant light, on the other dense darkness. After Constantine,
writes the same Vasari, "every sort of virtue" was lost, "beautiful"
souls and "lofty" intellects became corrupted into "most ugly" and
"basest," and the fervent zeal of the new religion did infinite damage
to the arts. This means neither more nor less than that dualism, one
of the capital traits of the Middle Ages, was retained, although
differently determined, for now the god was (although not openly
acknowledged) antiquity, art, science, Greek and Roman life, and its
adversary, the reprobate and rebel, was the Middle Age, 'Gothic'
temples, theology and philosophy bristling with difficulties, the
clumsy and cruel customs of that age. But just because the
respective functions of the two terms were merely inverted, their
opposition remained, and if Christianity did not succeed in
understanding Paganism and in recognizing its father, so the
Renaissance failed to recognize itself as the son of the Middle Ages,
and did not understand the positive and durable value of the period
that was closing. For this reason, both ages destroyed or allowed to
disappear the monuments of the previous age. This was certainly far
less the case with the Renaissance, which expressed itself less
violently and was deeply imbued with the thought of the Middle
Ages, and, owing to the idea of humanity, had an obscure feeling of
the importance of its predecessor. So much was this the case that

the school of learned men and philologists already mentioned was
formed at that time, with the new of investigating medieval
antiquities. But the learned are the learned—that is to say, they do
not take an active part in the struggles of their time, though busied
with the collection and arrangement of its chronicles and remains,
which they often judge in accordance with the vulgar opinion of their
own time, so that it is quite customary to find them despising the
subject of their labours, declaring that the poet whom they are
studying has no value, or that the period to which they are
consecrating their entire life is ugly and displeasing. It needed much
to free the flame of intelligence from the heaps of medieval
antiquities accumulated for centuries by the learned, and the Middle
Ages were abhorred during the Renaissance, even when they were
investigated. The drama of love and hatred was not dissimilar in its
forms, nor less bitterly dualistic, although vastly more interesting,
than that which was then being played out between Catholics and
Protestants. The latter called the Pope Antichrist, and the primacy of
the Roman Church mysterium iniquitatis, and compiled a catalogue
testium veritatis of those who had opposed that iniquity even while it
prevailed. The Catholics returned the compliment with remarks
about Luther and the Reformation, and composed catalogues of
heretics, Satan's witnesses. But this strife was a relic of the past,
and would have ended by becoming gradually attenuated and
dispersed; whereas the other was an element of the future, and
could only be conquered by long effort and a new conception of the
loftiest character.
V
THE HISTORIOGRAPHY OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT
Meanwhile the historiography which immediately followed pushed
the double aporia of antiquity and of the Middle Ages to the

extreme; and it was owing to this radical unprejudiced procedure
that it acquired its definite physiognomy and the right of being
considered a particular historiographical period. The symbolical
vesture, woven of memories of the Græco-Roman world, with which
the modern spirit had first clothed itself, is now torn and thrown
away. The thought that the ancients had not been the oldest and
wisest among the peoples, but the youngest and the least expert,
and that the true ancients, that is to say, the most expert and
mature in mind, are co be found in the men of the modern world,
had little by little made its way and become universally accepted.
Reason in its nudity, henceforth saluted by its proper name,
succeeds the example and the authority of the Græco-Romans,
which represented reason opposed to barbaric culture and customs.
Humanitarianism, the cult of humanity, also idolized by the name of
'nature,' that is to say, ingenuous general human nature, succeeds to
humanism, with its one-sided admirations for certain peoples and for
certain forms of life. Histories written in Latin become scarce or are
confined to the learned, and those written in national languages are
multiplied; criticism is exercised not only upon medieval falsifications
and fables, upon the writings of credulous and ignorant monks in
monasteries, but upon the pages of ancient historians, and the first
doubts appear as to the truth of the historical Roman tradition. A
feeling of sympathy, however, toward the ancients still persists,
whereas repugnance and abhorrence for the Middle Ages continue to
increase. All feel and say that they have emerged, not only from
darkness, but from the twilight before dawn, that the sun of reason
is high on the horizon, illuminating the intellect and irradiating it with
most vivid light. 'Light,' 'illumination,' and the like are words
pronounced on every occasion and with ever increasing conviction
and energy; hence the title 'age of light,' of 'enlightenment' or of
'illumination,' given to the period extending from Descartes to Kant.
Another term began to circulate, at first used rarely and in a
restricted sense—'progress.' It gradually becomes more insistent and
familiar, and finally succeeds in supplying a criterion for the
judgment of facts, for the conduct of life, for the construction of

history, becomes the subject of special investigations, and of a new
kind of history, the history of the progresses of the human spirit.
But here we observe the persistence and the potency of Christian
and theological thought. The progress so much discussed was, so to
speak, a progress without development, manifesting itself chiefly in
a sigh of satisfaction and security, as of one, favoured by fortune,
who has successfully encountered many obstacles and now looks
serenely upon the present, secure as to the future, with mind
averted from the past, or returning to it now and then for a brief
moment only, in order to lament its ugliness, to despise and to smile
at it. Take as an example of all the most intelligent and at the same
time the best of the historical representatives of enlightenment M.
de Voltaire, who wrote his Essai sur les mœurs in order to aid his
friend the Marquise du Châtelet to surmonter le dégoût caused her
by l'histoire moderne depuis la décadence de l'Empire romain,
treating the subject in a satirical vein. Or take Condorcet's work,
l'Esquisse d'un tableau historique des progrès de l'esprit humain,
which appears at its end like a last will and testament (and also as
the testament of the man who wrote it), and where we find the
whole century in compendium. It is as happy in the present, even in
the midst of the slaughters of the Revolution, as rosy in its views as
to the future, as it is full of contempt and sarcasm for the past,
which had generated that present. The felicity of the period upon
which they were entering was clearly stated. Voltaire says that at
this time les hommes ont acquis plus de lumières d'un bout de
l'Europe à l'autre que dans tous les âges précédents. Man now
brandishes the arm which none can resist: la seule arme contre le
monstre, c'est la Raison: la seule manière d'empêcher les hommes
d'être absurdes et méchants, c'est de les éclairer; pour rendre le
fanatisme exécrable, il ne faut que le peindre. Certainly it was not
denied that there had been something of good and beautiful in the
past. They must have existed, if they suffered from superstition and
oppression. On voit dans l'histoire les erreurs et les préjugés se
succéder tour à tour, et chasser la vérité et la raison: on voit les
habiles et les heureux enchaîner les imbéciles et écraser les

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