1885.1 ^1 [Brinton. 



constantly used in word-building, but are generally not words 

 themselves, having no independent status in the language. They 

 may be single letters, or even merely vowel-changes and con- 

 sonantal substitutions ; but they have well defined significance. 



In incorporation the object may be united to the verbal theme 

 either as a prefix, suffix or infix ; or, as in Nahuatl, etc., a pro- 

 nominal representative of it may be thus attached to the verb, 

 while the object itself is placed in isolated apposition. 



The subject is usually a pronoun inseparably connected, or at 

 least included within the tense sign ; to this the nominal subject 

 stands in apposition. Both subjective and objective pronouns 

 are apt to have a different form from either the independent 

 personals or possessives, and this difference of form may be ac- 

 cepted as a priori evidence of the incorporative plan of structure 

 — though there are other possible origins for it. The tense and 

 mode signs are general^ separable, and, especially in the com- 

 pound tenses, are seen to apply not only to the verb itself, but 

 to the whole scope of its action, the tense sign for instance pre- 

 ceding the subject. 



Some further observations will set these peculiarities in a yet 

 clearer light. 



Although in polysynthesis we speak of prefixes, suffixes, and 

 juxtaposition, we are not to understand these terms as the same 

 as in connection with the Aryan or with the agglutinative lan- 

 guages. In polysynthetic tongues they are not intended to form 

 words, but sentences ; not to express an idea, but a proposition. 

 This is a fundamental logical distinction between the two classes 

 of languages. * 



With certain prefixes, as those indicating possession, the form 

 of the word itself alters, as in Mexican, amatl, book, no, mine, 

 but namauh, my book. In a similar manner suffixes or post- 

 positions affect the form of the words to which they are added. 



As the holophrastic method makes no provisions for the syntax 

 of the sentence outside of the expression of action (i. e., the 



