128 BKOOMALL : 



ability, and, if there be a defect anywhere, it is in the language 

 and not in his thinking. So, also, he soon learns to place 

 subject, verb and object in that proper order which is the 

 essential of the English sentence. He may say her for she or 

 me for /, but their place in the sentence, wherel)y their gram- 

 matical relation to the verb is indicated, he puts correctly. 

 With this grasp of the fundamental grammar of his native 

 tongue, the child can say anything he thinks. His errors of 

 speech cause no misunderstanding, because they are simply 

 failures to use distinctions of form that are not at all necessary 

 to the sense, although proper by tradition. Later on he learns 

 to correct goed with ivent and axes with oxen, but this process, 

 so important to the schoolmaster, is an intellectual trifle in 

 linguistic acquirement compared with the mastering of the use 

 and significance of the abstract d and ,s- learned long before. 



The grammatical form, thus early learned, is characteristic 

 of a language to a greater degree than its vocabulary'. 

 Grammar is a formula of thinking, and the terms of the for- 

 mula may be any sound associated with the appropriate idea. 

 Each tongue has its peculiar grammatical formula. On the 

 other hand, the simple mental process of a word's adoption, 

 be it learned of parent or foreigner, is the same in all lan- 

 guages. The individual or the language may adopt new words 

 ad libiUim without affecting his or its grammar. The indivi- 

 dual continues to adopt new words throughout his life as new 

 things and ideas are brought to his attention. But the gram- 

 matical form learned in youth remains the same. His thinking 

 has been trained to it. To him it is the logical formula to 

 which any proposition new or old conforms. To him, trained 

 to this form, it becomes the only logical form of expression. 



The distinction between grammar and vocabulary in their 

 hold upon the speaker is abundantly illustrated by those 

 languages whose vocabulary is mainly foreign. Persian thus 

 consists largely of Arabic words, and English of French and 

 Latin, but their grammars are their own. Under the conditions 

 which brought into contact Arabic and Persian, and English 



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