1885.] '- ^-"^ LBi'inton. 



It is possible to suppose that all four of these forms were de- 

 veloped from some primitive condition of utterance unknown to 

 us, just as naturalists believe that all organic species were devel- 

 oped out of a homogeneous protoplasmic mass ; but it is as hard 

 to see how any one of them in its present form could pass over 

 into another, as to understand how a radiate could change into a 

 mollusk. 



§ 12. Nature of Incorporation. 



Of th? four plans mentioned, Incorporation is that character- 

 istic of, though not confined to, American tongues. 



It may appear in a higher or a lower grade, but its intention 

 is everywhere the effort to convey in one word the whole propo- 

 sition. The Verb, as that part of speech which especially con- 

 veys the sjnithetic action of the mental operation, is that which is 

 selected as the stem of this word-sentence; all the other parts are 

 subordinate accessories, devoid of syntactic value. 



'J'he higher grade of incorporation includes both subject, ob- 

 ject and verb in one word, and if for any reason the object is not 

 included, the scheme of the sentence is still maintained in the 

 verb, and the object is placed outside, as in apposition, without 

 case ending, and under a form different from its original and sim- 

 ple one. 



This will readily be understood from the following examples 

 from the Mexican language. 



The sentence ni-naca-qua, is one word and means "I, flesh, 

 eat." If it is desired to express the object independently, the 

 expression becomes yii-c-qua-in-nacatl^ " I it eat, the flesh." The 

 termination tl does not belong to the root of the noun, but is 

 added to show that it is in an external, and, as it were, unnatural 

 position. Both the direct and remote object can thus be incor- 

 porated, and if they are not, but separately appended, the scheme 

 of the sentence is still preserved ; as ni-te-tla-maca^ literally, " I, 

 something, to somebody, give." How closely these accessories 

 are incorporated is illustrated by the fact that the tense aug- 

 ments are not added to the stem, but to the whole word ; o-ni-c-te- 

 maca-e, " I have given it to somebody ; " when the o is the prefix 

 of the perfect. 



In these languages, every element in the sentence, which is not 

 incorporated in the verb, has, in fact, no sjntax at all. The 



