On the Evolution of Language | Page 9

J.W. Powell
by some other process,
and, if by shooting, whether by bow and arrow, or with a gun; and the
form of the verb would in like manner have to express all of these
things relating to the object; that is, the person, number, gender, and
case of the object; and from the multiplicity of paradigmatic forms of
the verb to kill this particular one would have to be selected. Perhaps
one time in a million it would be the purpose to express all of these
particulars, and in that case the Indian would have the whole expression
in one compact word, but in the nine hundred and ninety-nine thousand
nine hundred and ninety-nine cases all of these particulars would have
to be thought of in the selection of the form of the verb, when no
valuable purpose would be accomplished thereby.
In the development of the English, as well as the French and German,
linguistic evolution has not been in vain.
Judged by these criteria, the English stands alone in the highest rank;
but as a written language, in the way in which its alphabet is used, the
English has but emerged from a barbaric condition.

INDEX. Page Adjective, The, in Indian tongues 10 Adverbial particles
13 Adverbs in Indian tongues 10, 11, 13 Agglutination in language 4
Article pronouns in Indian languages 9, 10
Combination in Indian tongues 7 in language, Process of, 3, 7
Comparison, of English with Indian 15 Compounding in language 3
Connotation of Indian nouns 8
Derivation, how accomplished 7 Differentiation of parts of speech 8
Evolution of language 3
Gender in Indian languages 9 Grammatic processes, agglutination 4 ----,
combination 3 ----, compounding 3 ----, inflection 4 ----, intonation 6
----, juxtaposition 3 ----, placement 7, 8 ----, vocalic mutation 5
Indian tongues, Relative position of 15 Inflection in English language
14 in language 4 ----, Paradigmatic 7, 15 Juxtaposition in language 3
Language, Evolution of 3-16 ----, Processes of 3-8
Modal particles 13 Mode in Indian tongues 12 Modification, how
accomplished 7 Mutation, Vocalic 5
Nouns in Indian tongues 11
Paradigmatic inflection 7, 15 Particles, Adverbial 13 ----, Modal 13 ----,
Pronominal 13 ----, Tense 13 Placement, Process of 6-8 Prepositions in
Indian tongues 11 Processes of language 3-8 Pronominal particles 13
Pronouns in Indian languages 9
Speech, Differentiation of parts of 8 Syntactic relation, how
accomplished 7
Tense in Indian tongues 12 particles 13
Verbs in English language 14 in Indian tongues 10, 11 Vocalic
mutation in language, Process of 5

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