1885.] 5J [Brinton. 



Finally, I may close this brief review of the history of these 

 doctrines with a reference to the fact that neither of them ap- 

 pears anywhere mentioned in the official " Introduction to the 

 Study of Indian Languages " issued by the United States 

 Bureau of Ethnology ! How the author of that work, Major 

 J. W. Powell, Director of the Bureau, could have written a trea- 

 tise on the study of American languages, and have not a word to 

 say about these doctrines, the most salient and characteristic 

 features of the group, is to me as inexplicable as it is extraordi- 

 nary. He certainly could not have supposed that Duponceau's 

 theory was completely dead and laid to rest, for Steinthal, the 

 most eminent philosophic linguist of the age, still teaches in Ber- 

 lin, and teaches what I have already quoted from him about these 

 traits. What is more, Major Powell does not even refer to this 

 structural plan, nor include it in what he terms the " grammatic 

 processes " which he explains.* This is indeed the play of "Ham- 

 let " with the part of Hamlet omitted ! 



I believe that for the scientific study of language, and especially 

 of American languages, it will be profitable to restore and clearly 

 to differentiate the distinction between polysynthesis and incor- 

 poration, dimly perceived by Duponceau and expressed by him 

 in the words already quoted. With these may be retained the 

 neologism of Lieber, holophrasis, and the three defined as fol- 

 lows : 



Poli/synthesrs is a method of word-building, applicable either 

 to nominals or verbals, which not only employs juxtaposition 

 with aphreresis, syncope, apocope, etc., but also words, forms of 

 words and significant phonetic elements which have no separate 

 existence apart from such compounds. This latter peculiarity 

 marks it off altogether from the processes of agglutination and 

 collocation. 



Incorporation, Einverleibung , is a structural process confined 



* Introduction to the Study of Indian Languages. By J. W. Powell, p. 55, Second 

 edition. Washington, 1880. 



