The Noblest Animate Motion: Speech, physiology and medicine in pre-Cartesian linguistic thought(83 Studies in the History of the Language Sciences)

The body of theory on speech production and speech disorder developed prior to Descartes has been so neglected by historians that its very existence is practically unknown today. Yet it provides a framework for understanding the speech process which is not only comprehensive and coherent, but of great relevance to current debates on issues of language performance and applied linguistics. Current theoretical difficulties stem largely from initial errors of Descartes; whereas earlier theoretical formulations, while outlining a bio-mechanics of speech, retain the central role of the human agent. The discussions explicated in this book come mainly from the natural-philosophic and medical literature of Greco-Roman Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance and early 17th century. This uncharted territory is mapped by tracing its textual history and diffusion as well as explaining the theory on its own terms but in clear and comprehensible language. Interdisciplinary in perspective, the book encompasses topics of interest not only to the language sciences, but also to the biosciences, medicine, philosophy of human movement, psychology and behavioral sciences, neurosciences, speech pathology, experimental phonetics, speech and rhetoric, and the history of science in general.

Table of Contents:
1. List of Illustrations; 2. List of Abbreviations; 3. Introduction; 4. 1. The Problem; 5. 2. Speech in Natural Philosophy and Medicine; 6. 3. The Present Work; 7. Chapter 1. Traditional Concepts of Speech and Speech Defect; 8. 1. The Word; 9. 2. Definitions of Voice and Speech; 10. 3. The Causes of Speech; 11. 4. Defects of Speech (Vitia Loquelae); 12. Chapter 2. Classification of Speech Defect in the Aristotelian Problems; 13. 1. Philosophical Origins; 14. 2. Is the Speech of Infants Defective?; 15. 3. The Problems in the Middle Ages; 16. 4. The Problems in the Renaissance; 17. 5. Conclusions; 18. Chapter 3. Galenic Classification of Speech Defect and Disorder; 19. 1. Diseases; 20. 2. Symptoms; 21. 3. Speech Disorders: The Parts Affected; 22. 4. Conclusions; 23. Chapter 4. "Thin" Voice or "Checked" Voice?: Galen's Lost Theory; 24. 1. The Problem; 25. 2. Galen's Lost Theory of "Checked Voice"; 26. Chapter 5. Moisture and the Tongue, Place and Manner of Articulation: The Tradition of Aphorism vi.32 up to the Renaissance; 27. 1. Aphorism vi.32; 28. 2. Classical Commentaries; 29. 3. The Early Middle Ages; 30. 4. The High and Late Middle Ages; 31. Chapter 6. Moisture and the Tongue in the Renaissance; 32. 1. The Renaissance; 33. 2. Conclusions; 34. Chapter 7. Speech Disorder and Melancholy in the Classical and Medieval Period; 35. 1. Introduction; 36. 2. Tradition of Aphorisms vii.40; 37. 3. Tradition of Epidemics ii.5 and 6; 38. 4. Tradition of Problems xi.38; 39. 5. Conclusions; 40. Chapter 8. Speech Disorder and Melancholy in the Renaissance; 41. 1. Introduction; 42. 2. Tradition of Aphorisms vii.40; 43. 3. Epidemics ii.5 & 6 and Problems xi.38; 44. 4. Conclusions; 45. Chapter 9. Sanctorius: Galenus contra Galenum; 46. 1. The Dawn of Mechanism in the Speech Sciences; 47. 2. Sanctorius and his 'Methods for Avoiding All Errors"; 48. 3. Sanctorius on the Cause of Speech Disorder; 49. 4. Implications for the History of Speech Therapy; 50. 5. Conclusions; 51. Appendix, Six Galenic Classifications of Speech Defect and Disorder, 14th-17th Centuries; 52. Bibliography; 53. 1. Manuscripts; 54. 2. Printed Works; 55. Index of Names; 56. Index of Subjects; 57. List of Illustrations; 58. Figure 1. Girolamo fabrizi d' Aquapendente; 59. Figure 2. The Organs of Speech (Fabricius 1601); 60. Figure 3. The Anatomy of the Tongue (Vesalius 1543); 61. Figure 4. George of Trebizond and Theodore Gaza; 62. Figure 5. Peter of Abano; 63. Figure 6. Girolamo Cardano; 64. Figure 7. Girolamo Mercuriali; 65. Figure 8. Sanctorius Sanctorius