in the "dialects" of the districts where once the
original language prevailed. Thus it may be incorrect, from the
historical point of view, to say that "dialect" varieties of a language
represent degradations of the standard language. A "literary" accepted
language, such as modern English, represents the original language
spoken in the Midlands, with accretions of Norman, French, and later
literary and scientific additions from classical and other sources,
while the present-day "dialects" preserve, in inflections, pronunciation
and particular words, traces of the original variety of the language not
incorporated in the standard language of the country. See the various
articles on languages (English, French, &c).

DIALECTIC, or DIALECTICS (from Gr. [Greek: dialektos], discourse,
debate; [Greek: e dialektike], sc. [Greek: techne], the art of debate),
a logical term, generally used in common parlance in a contemptuous
sense for verbal or purely abstract disputation devoid of practical
value. According to Aristotle, Zeno of Elea "invented" dialectic, the
art of disputation by question and answer, while Plato developed it
metaphysically in connexion with his doctrine of "Ideas" as the art of
analysing ideas in themselves and in relation to the ultimate idea of
the Good (_Repub._ vii.). The special function of the so-called
"Socratic dialectic" was to show the inadequacy of popular beliefs.
Aristotle himself used "dialectic," as opposed to "science," for that
department of mental activity which examines the presuppositions lying
at the back of all the particular sciences. Each particular science has
its own subject matter and special principles ([Greek: idiai archai]) on
which the superstructure of its special discoveries is based. The
Aristotelian dialectic, however, deals with the universal laws ([Greek:
koinai archai]) of reasoning, which can be applied to the particular
arguments of all the sciences. The sciences, for example, all seek to
define their own species; dialectic, on the other hand, sets forth the
conditions which all definitions must satisfy whatever their subject
matter. Again, the sciences all seek to educe general laws; dialectic
investigates the nature of such laws, and the kind and degree of
necessity to which they can attain. To this general subject matter
Aristotle gives the name "Topics" ([Greek: topoi], loci, communes loci).
"Dialectic" in this sense is the equivalent of "logic." Aristotle also
use