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JULY, 1907.)
RECORD OF THE LANGUAGES OF SAVAGES,
185
connecting word "into" would be used in such a corresponding expression as "descent into Hell." Agreement or concord between adjective and noun, or verb and noun, in the inflected languages has exactly the same object. In the Persian "ism-i-sharif" (noble name), the relation between noun and adjective is expressed by the connecting word "i.
These considerations complete what may be called the second stage of the argument leading to clear definitions of grammatical terms. The argument thereafter becomes more complicated, taking us into the explanation of elliptical, i. e., incompletely expressed, forms of speech, and into those expansions of sentences known as phrases, clauses and periods. But, to keep our minds fixed only on that part of it which leads to plain grammatical definitions, it may be stated now that functionally a word must be, inventing new terms for the purpose, one of the following
(1) An integer, or & sentence in itself (imperatives, interjections, pronouns,
numerals). (2) An indicator, or indicative of the subject or complement (object) of a sentence
(nouns). (3) An explicator, or explanatory of its subject or complement (adjective). (4) A predicator, or indicative of its predicate (verbs). (5) An illustrator, or illustrative of its predicate or complement, or of the explanation
of its subject or complement (adverb, adjective). (6) A connector, or explanatory of the interrelation of its components (or words,
conjunctions, prepositions). (7) An introducer, or explanatory of its purpose (conjunctions, adverbs). (8) A referent conjunctor, or explanatory of the interrelation of connected sentences
by joining them (pronouns, conjunctions). (9) A reforent substituto, or explanatory of the interrelation of connected sentences
by substitution of itself in the subordinate sentence for the word in the principal sentence to which it refers (relative pronouns, conjunctions).
These then are the terms it is proposed to use in the explanation of the functions of words, and the arguments out of which they grow. Of course, grammarians will know that all this is syntax, and it must now be explained why the Theory makes it necessary to consider it far more important to study function than form or tone, as essential to the correct apprehension of the nature of words, and that accidence arises properly out of syntax and not the other way round, as so many of us have been taught.
It is obvious that any given woni may full one or more or all the functions of words, and that therefore words may be collected into as many classes as there are functions, any individual word being transferable from one class to another and belonging to as many classes as there are functions which it can fulfil. This is to say, that words are divisible into classes according to function as just explained, and that the same word can belong to more than one class, as it does constantly in English. Thus," the tiger returns to his kill," "Shall we kill the horse P," "Shall we cross at the bridge higher op, or shall we bridge the river here at once ?" And so on ad infinitum. In the above examples the same word has been transferred from the indicator (noun) class to the predicator (verb) class. And the same words in English and many other tongues are constantly nouns, adjectives, verbs or adverbs, simply according to the function they happen to perform for the time being.
The function a word fulfils in any particular sentence can be indicated by its position therein, without and with variation of form, as in English and Latin respectively; or by its
