E. g., the idea
"white+wet+sweet+warm" having arisen out of frequent seeing, feeling,
and tasting of milk, it depends upon what primitive syllable is
selected for questioning the hungry infant, for talking to him, or
quieting him, whether he expresses his desire for food by _moem_,
_mimi_, _nana_, _ning_, or _maman_, or _maem_, or _mem_, or _mima_, or
yet other syllables. The oftener he has the idea of food (i. e.,
something that banishes hunger or the unpleasant feeling of it), and
at the same time the sound-impression "milk," so much the more will
the latter be associated with the former, and in consideration of the
great advantages it offers, in being understood by all, will finally
be adopted. Thus the child learns his first words. But in each
individual case the first words acquired in this manner have a wider
range of meaning than the later ones.
By means of pure echolalia, without associating ideas with the word
babbled in imitation, the child learns, to be sure, to articulate words
likewise; but he does not learn to understand them or to use them
properly unless coincidences, intentional or accidental, show him this
or that result when this or that word is uttered by him. If the child,
e. g., hearing the new word "Schnee," says, as an echo, _nee_, and then
some one shows him actual snow, the meaningless _nee_ becomes associated
with a sense-intuition; and later, also, nothing can take the place of
the intuition--i.
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