13/10/06 - English Literature - The Nature of Language

Milton discusses language. Logos. Greek for 'word', logocentric. In Gospel, "In the beginning there was the Word." Genesis: "God speaks the name of things and it comes into being." "Let there be light," therefore no difference between the word and the thing.

Where there is a gap there are puns: "a b" or "a bee". The light has presence when God says it. Logos - logic, rationality, thought. A word has direct relationship with thing it describes. Or a word could bring attention to the absence of things.

Ideal language is that of God, language contains the things it describes. Finite number of things in the world, to find the name of. Samuel Johnson, e.g.

John Webster Academarium Examen, 1854.

How did Adam know what to call the elephants? Their internal/external natures and signatures must be bound up in the word. If Adam called an elephant an aardvark there would be an incongruity - "that way lies error and falsehood".

What was the language in the Garden of Eden like? Hebrew and Irish suggested.

Adam reads internal signatures of things.
God boring. Never any ambiguity because he is the logos. God is language (Gospel). Language that contains meaning of thing described.
Milton tells us what happens when God speaks, e.g. ambrosial fragrance, fulfilling justice.
Christ says what God says. Pure language. "All hast thou spoken as my thoughts are." God to Christ.

Communication like a pebble dropped in water. Pebble is thought, next circle words of thought, next circle written thoughts, most subjective.

Satan characterised by rhetorical language. Remember Webster. 9:655-781. Satan whittles at purity of language. Stylish arguments - ambiguity, disparity, incongruity... The meaning of two words "God" and "death". Satan asks Eve to say what "God" is. There should be no interpretation in Eden as there is no difference between word and object. Satan: "Hath God said?" Questions God's words. Milton describes Satan as orator. Free language to do with democracy? Milton asks reader to put themselves in Adam and Eve's place.

Satan realises Eve doesn't know what "dying" is. How do you know you will die? Difference between life and death. Puns; "virtue" - goodness or courage. Opposed to logos (God). "Whatever thing death be". Death has no physical being, therefore it must be interpreted. Satan suggests death may mean becoming God. Calls her "goddess humane", which is impossible with logos. Persuades her to think the tree is poisonous. False logic, she sees Satan is still alive after eating the fruit.

At first, Eve knew what death meant because God said it. Milton uses more puns as poem progresses, reminder that we use this fallen language.
"Cure" - remedy or duty. "Eve" contains the word "evil".