Abstract
ABSTRACT Plato explores in Cratylus two opposing views on the nature of the relation between names and the objects they designate, effectively inaugurating the linguistic naturalism-conventionalism debate that is far from being over. In light of this debate, the purpose of this essay is to turn to The Lord of the Rings in search of what a ‘real’ natural language might look like, exploring Entish, the language spoken by the Tree-herds of Fangorn Forest, as an instance of natural language in the terms exposed by Cratylus. I will build on Tolkien’s insistence on the linguistic foundation of his legendarium in order to focus on the philological grounds for the conception of the Ents and their language, and briefly relate these findings with recent research on tree communication. Even though Tolkien does not offer many instances of Entish, Treebeard’s remarks on its most outstanding characteristics provide enough ground for analysis.
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