English linguistic speculation from Francis Bacon
to John Locke ranges of course over a variety of very
disparate interests and problems: problems of semantic
logic and historical semantics; pedagogical interests;
discussions of the means of scientific communication,
of the reform of style, of the function and technique
of the comparative study of languages. Two themes,
however, seem constantly to recur, insuring the unity
of these inquiries and in a way constituting their
guideline; the critique of ordinary language, and the
gradual formation of the idea of the arbitrariness of
the linguistic sign.
