Brinton] °t> [Oct. 2, 



tic, not as a substitute for the terms he criticized, but to express 

 the meaning or purpose of these processes, which is, to convey 

 the whole of a sentence or proposition in one word. Polysyn- 

 thesis, he explains, indicates a purely etymological process, holo- 

 phrasis " refers to the meaning of the word considered in a 

 philosophical point of view." 



If we regard incorporation and polysynthesis as structural 

 processes of language aiming to accomplish a certain theoretical 

 form of speech, then it will be convenient to have this word 

 holophrasis to designate this theoretical form, which is, in short, 

 the expression of the whole proposition in a single word. 



The eminent linguist, Professor H. Steinthal, has developed 

 the theory of incorporation more fully than any other writer. 

 He expresses himself without reserve of the opinion that all 

 American languages are constructed on this same plan, more or 

 less developed. 



I need not make long quotations from a work so well-known 

 as his Gharakteristik der hauptsachlichsten Typen des Sprach- 

 baves, one section of which, about thirty pages in length, is de- 

 voted to a searching and admirable presentation of the character- 

 istics of the incorporative plan as shown in American languages. 

 But I may give with brevity, what he regards as the most strik- 

 ing features of this plan. These are especially three : — 



1. The construction of words by a mixed system of derivation 

 and new formation. 



2. The objective relation is treated as a species of possession ; 

 and 



3. The possessive relation is regarded as the leading and sub- 

 stantival one, and controls the form of expression. 



The first of these corresponds to what I should call polysyn- 

 thesis; the others to incorporation in the limited sense of the 

 term. 



Some special studies on this subject have been published by 

 M. Lucien Adam, and he claims for them that they have refuted 



