138 ^Y^scot^sin Academy of Sciences, Arts^ and Letters. 



lar. ''Some/' whicli is indefinite as to individuals and num- 

 ber/ becomes of necessity definite in number, in order to be 

 a singular. It is by the merest accident that English has de- 

 veloped the special "a" or ''an" for indefiniteness of the singular 

 number. The actual correlation of "a" and "some" is shown by 

 the Spanish "uno," "unos," etc. Moreover, when numerical 

 degree is displaced by degree of bulk, as happens in the case of 

 m.ass-words, the range of degrees expressed by singular "a" and 

 plural "some," is covered by a "some," itself now singular, as 

 in "some flour," "some powder," etc. 



The true significance of the indefinite article is sho^m by 

 languages possessing more than two numerical inflections. In 

 such languages the noun occasionally offers inflectional series 

 of the following values : "one man," "two men," "three men," 

 "four men," (more than four or) "many men." All these 

 forms are indefinite in selection, but the last alone in number. 

 Whether now the numerical elements be expressed by separate 

 adjectives, or incorporated in the nouns by inflectioUj the value 

 of the series is the same. According to the point of view it 

 may be claimed, with prior attention to number, that "one" is 

 the singular of "two," "three," "four" and "many," that is^ 

 three definite plurals and one indefinite. Or, wdth prior atten- 

 tion to numerical definiteness, "many" may be ranked as the 

 indefinite corresponding to four definites, of \Vhich one is singu- 

 lar and the others plural. Or, with exclusive and closer atten- 

 tion to number, the successive forms may be knowm as Grammar 

 knows them, namely, as singular, dual, trial, quatrial and pliis 

 quam quatrial or plural. 



The adverbial indefinites present a categorical range of un- 

 usual interest. The "somewhere" of space becomes, by an easy 

 transition, the "sometime" of temporal position. This, moreover, 

 leads readily to the "somehow" of manner, which again becomes 

 a word of indefinite cause, as in "Somehow I fell." Such in- 

 definiteness of kind is paralleled by indefiniteness of degree, as 

 in "Somewhat imcommon," "Rather imusual," etc. 



A tendency at least to verbal indefinites appears in the exces- 

 sive range of meanings employed wdth "to get," a phenomenon 



^Category it renounces in favor of its accompanying noun. 



