On the Evolution of Language | Page 2

and declensions, and for convenience such combinations may be called
paradigmatic. Then the oft-repeated elements of paradigmatic
combinations are apt to become excessively worn and modified, so that
the primitive words or themes to which they are attached seem to be
but slightly changed by the addition. Under these circumstances
combination is called inflection.
As a morphologic process, no well-defined plane of demarkation
between these four methods of combination can be drawn, as one runs
into another; but, in general, words may be said to be juxtaposed when
two words being placed together the combination performs the function
of a new word, while in form the two words remain separate.
Words may be said to be compound when two or more words are
combined to form one, no change being made in either. Words maybe
said to be agglutinated when the elementary words are changed but
slightly, i.e., only to the extent that their original forms are not greatly
obscured; and words may be said to be inflected when in the
combination the oft-repeated element or formative part has been so
changed that its origin is obscured. These inflections are used chiefly in
the paradigmatic combinations.
In the preceding statement it has been assumed that there can be

recognized, in these combinations of inflection, a theme or root, as it is
sometimes called, and a formative element. The formative element is
used with a great many different words to define or qualify them; that
is, to indicate mode, tense, number, person, gender, etc., of verbs,
nouns, and other parts of speech.
When in a language juxtaposition is the chief method of combination,
there may also be distinguished two kinds of elements, in some sense
corresponding to themes and formative parts. The theme is a word the
meaning of which is determined by the formative word placed by it;
that is, the theme is a word having many radically different meanings;
with which meaning it is to be understood is determined only by the
formative word, which thus serves as its label. The ways in which the
theme words are thus labeled by the formative word are very curious,
but the subject cannot be entered into here.
When words are combined by compounding, the formative elements
cannot so readily be distinguished from the theme; nor for the purposes
under immediate consideration can compounding be well separated
from agglutination.
When words are combined by agglutination, theme and formative part
usually appear. The formative parts are affixes; and affixes may be
divided into three classes, prefixes, suffixes, and infixes. These affixes
are often called incorporated particles.
In those Indian languages where combination is chiefly by
agglutination, that is, by the use of affixes, i.e., incorporated particles,
certain parts of the conjugation of the verb, especially those which
denote gender, number, and person, are effected by the use of article
pronouns; but in those languages where article pronouns are not found
the verbs are inflected to accomplish the same part of their conjugation.
Perhaps, when we come more fully to study the formative elements in
these more highly inflected languages, we may discover in such
elements greatly modified, i.e., worn out, incorporated pronouns.
II.--THE PROCESS BY VOCALIC MUTATION.

Here, in order to form a new word, one or more of the vowels of the old
word are changed, as in man--men, where an e is substituted for a;
ran--run, where u is substituted for a; lead--led, where e, with its
proper sound, is substituted for ea with its proper sound. This method is
used to a very limited extent in English. When the history of the words
in which it occurs is studied it is discovered to be but an instance of the
wearing out of the different elements of combined words; but in the
Hebrew this method prevails to a very large extent, and scholars have
not yet been able to discover its origin in combination as they have in
English. It may or may not have been an original grammatic process,
but because of its importance in certain languages it has been found
necessary to deal with it as a distinct and original process.
III.--THE PROCESS BY INTONATION.
In English, new words are not formed by this method, yet words are
intoned for certain purposes, chiefly rhetorical. We use the rising
intonation (or inflection, as it is usually called) to indicate that a
question is asked, and various effects are given to speech by the various
intonations of rhetoric. But this process is used in other languages to
form new words with which to express new ideas. In Chinese eight
distinct intonations are found, by the use of which one word may be
made to express eight different ideas, or perhaps it is better to say that
eight words may be made of one.