Owen — Revision of Pronouns. 53 



other than my statement. If, however, some sign were added 

 to '^George'^ or ^'the dragon" or both, by which you could know 

 what place the idea named by each should occupy in the struct- 

 ure of thought, your knowledge would be complete. 



XIII. ruisrcTio^s" ixdicatioi^ by inflection. 



This it is most convenient to illustrate first in the case of 

 single function. Thus, suppose I tell you that "Universities 

 teach.'' Into this valuable thought I v^ish to inject the idea ex- 

 pressed by ''thorough." Realizing your need of knowing what to 

 do with this idea, and abrogating, as before, the aid of order, I 

 guide you by the termination of the idea's symbol.* If I wish 

 you to use the idea as an adjunct of teaching, to conceive, that 

 is, that the teaching is thorough, I add to my symbol the ending 

 ^'ly," obtaining '^Universities thoroughly teach." If the idea 

 is to be an adjunct of "universities," I let the word remain 

 without a termination and say that "Universities thorough 

 teach." If I wish the idea to appear as a term, I use the ending 

 ^'ness" and tell you that "Universities thoroughness teach." ^ 



The indication afforded by inflection may be even more pre- 

 cise. In "Lunam sol excedit" the inflection "am" exhibits not 

 merely gender and number, but also the use of "Lunam" as last 

 term of thought ; at the same time "sol" is by its ending an- 

 nounced as first term. That is, whatever be the order of actual 

 mention, to build my ideas into the intended whole, it is neces- 

 sary to begin with the sun and end w^ith the moon. For if 

 you begin with the moon and end with the sun, you will need 

 an entirely different relation, not that of superior to inferior, 

 I)ut that of inferior to superior ; not that expressed by "excedit," 

 but that expressed by "exceditur." 



Whatever else be expressed by such infiections may for the 

 present be overlooked, special attention being concentrated on 

 the momentarily important fact that inflections can and some- 

 times do announce the function of the inflected idea. The 

 bearing of this fact on the interpretation of relatives can best 

 I)e seen in the li^ht of 



^On the incompleteness and the imperfection of this method I do not stop to 

 insist, or to justify the merely convenient use of the word inflection to include 

 all kinds of word-variation, those even usually ranked as derivative. 



