VARIETIES OF HUMAN SPEECH SAPIR. 689 



words feet and swam, furthermore, respectively express the same two 

 concepts by the use of an entirely distinct formal method, that of 

 internal vowel change. 



On the whole one finds that it is possible to distinguish between two 

 groups of grammatically expressed logical categories. One group 

 may be characterized as derivational; it embraces a range of concepts 

 expressed by grammatical elements that serve to limit or modify 

 the signification of the word subjected to grammatical treatment 

 without seriously affecting its relation to other words in the sentence. 

 Such merely derivational elements are, m English, prefixes like un-, 

 suffixes like -less, agentive suffixes like -er in haker, and numerous 

 others. The second group of logical concepts and corresponding 

 grammatical elements may be characterized as relational; they not 

 merely serve to give the word affected a new increment of meaning, 

 as is the case with the first group, but also assign it a definite syn- 

 tactic place in the sentence, defhiing as they do its relation to other 

 words of the sentence. Such a relational grammatical element, in 

 English, is the plural -s suffix; a word, for instance, like hooks differs 

 from its corresponding singular hook not merely in the idea of plurality 

 conveyed by the suffix -s, but in that it assumes a different grammat- 

 ical relation to other words in the sentence — a book is, but books 

 are. Such relational elements are, furthermore, the case and gender 

 sufl&xes of nouns and adjectives in Indogermanic languages; further- 

 more, the personal endings and tense suffixes of verbs. On the whole 

 it may be said that derivational elements are of relativel}^ more con- 

 crete signification than the relational ones and tend to become more 

 thoroughly welded into a word unit with the basic word or stem to 

 which they are attached or which they aff'ect. This statement, 

 however, is only approximately of general application and is subject 

 to numerous qualifications. The greatest degree of concreteness 

 of meanmg conveyed by derivational elements is probably attamed 

 in many, though by no means all, American Indian languages, where 

 ideas of largely material content are apt to be expressed by gram- 

 matical means. To this tendency the name of polys3"nthesis has 

 been applied. Thus m Yana, an Indian language of northern Cali- 

 fornia, such ideas as up a hill, across a creek, in the fire, to the east, 

 from the south, immediately, m vain, and a host of others are cx])ressed 

 by means of grammatical suffixes appended to the verb stem; so 

 also in Nootka, an Indian language of Vancouver Island, so highly 

 special ideas as on the head, in the hand, on the rocks, on the surface 

 of the water, and many others are similarly expressed as suffixes. 

 It is important to note that, although the distinction between deriva- 

 tional and relational grammatical elements we have made is clearly 

 reflected in some way or other in most languages, they differ a great 

 deal as to what particular concepts are treated as respectively 



