In Locke's footsteps: Language and Labour from Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations" to Leonard Bloomfield's "Language"

Abstract

In this paper we trace the link between language and labour from Locke’s Essay Concerning Human Understanding to Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations to Leonard Bloomfield’s Language, first outlining Smith’s theory of language functions, then tracing the idea through the work of Hegel, Marx, Darwin, Spencer, Hermann Paul, Ludwig Noiré, and Leonard Bloomfield, all of whom claimed that language is a method of communication bounded to labour. Adam Smith, the Scottish philosopher and economist, laid the framework for a theory of language functions which makes linguistic communication the most relevant function. Furthermore, Smith (1776) conjectured that the communicative function of language, which he termed persuasion, must have brought about the division of labour. In so doing, Smith was the first to link language to labour, influencing 19th century linguistics and appearing in Bloomfield’s Language of 1933. It is probable, though still arguable, that 19th century European Linguistics circles adopted Smith’s idea, not through Smith’s work directly, but rather by way of Hegel (1807).