TONE AND GESTURE. 115 



not ' I am hungry, give me bread,' but ' Hungry me, bread 

 give.' ... 



"The fundamental principle which regulates the order of 

 the deaf-mutes' signs, seems to be that enunciated by Schmalz : 

 that which seems to him the most important he always acts 

 before the rest, and that which seems to him superfluous he 

 leaves out. For instance, to say, ' My father gave me an 

 apple,' he makes the sign for ' apple,' then that for ' father,' 

 and then that for ' I,' without adding that for ' give.' The 

 following remarks, sent to me by Dr. Scott, seem to agree 

 with this view : With regard to the two sentences you give 

 (I struck Tom with a stick — Tom struck me with a stick), the 

 sequence in the introduction of the particular parts would in 

 some measure depend on the part that most attention was 

 wished to be drawn towards. If a mere telling of the fact 

 was required, my opinion is that it would be arranged so, ' I- 

 Tom-struck-a-stick,' and the passive form in a similar 

 manner with the change of ' Tom/ first. 



" Both these sentences are not generally said by the deaf- 

 and-dumb without their having been interested in the fact, 

 and then, in coming to tell of them, they first give that part 

 they are most anxious to impress on their hearer. Thus, if a 

 boy had struck another boy, and the injured party came to 

 tell us, if he was desirous to acquaint us with the idea that a 

 particular boy did it, he would point to the boy first. But if 

 he was anxious to draw attention to his own suffering, rather 

 than to the person by whom it was caused, he would point to 

 himself and make the act of striking, and then point to the 

 boy ; or if he was wishful to draw attention to the cause of 

 his suffering, he might sign the striking first, and then tell us 

 afterwards by whom it was done. 



" Dr. Scott is, so far as I know, the only person who has 

 attempted to lay down a set of distinct rules for the syntax 

 of the gesture-language. ' The subject comes before the 

 attribute, the object before the action.' A third construction 

 is common, though not necessary, ' the modifier after the 

 modified.' The first construction, by which the 'horse' is put 



