THE TRANSITIOX IX THE INDIVIDUAL. 2ig 



over her picture-books, whenever she came upon a representa- 

 tion of a sheep with lambs, she would point to the sheep and 

 say Mama-Ba, while to the lambs she would say Ilda-Ba. 

 Similarly with ducks and ducklings, hens and chickens, and 

 indeed with all the animals to which she had given names. 

 Here it is evident that Ilda served to convey the generic idea 

 of Young, and so, from having been originally used as a proper 

 or denotative name, was now employed as an adjective or 

 connotative name. But although it expressed a quality, the 

 quality was one of so sensible a kind that the adjective 

 amounted to virtually the same thing as substantive, so far as 

 any faculty of abstraction was concerned : it was equivalent to 

 the word Baby, when by connotative extension this comes 

 to be used as an adjective in the apposition Baby-Ba for a 

 lamb, &c. 



Almost contemporaneously with the acquisition of adjec- 

 tives, this child began to learn the use of a few passive verbs, 

 and words significant of certain states of feeling ; she also added 

 to her vocabulary a few prepositions indicating space rela- 

 tions, such as Up, Doivn, &c.* 



While these advances were being made, a general progress 

 of the sign-making faculty was also, and even more 

 conspicuously, shown in another direction. For speech, in the 

 sense of formal predication, not having yet begun, the 

 development in question took place in the region of gesture. 

 She was then (two years) able to express a great many simple 

 ideas by the combined use of gesture-signs, vocal-tones, and a 



by his sister, this is probably an instance of the spontaneous invention of names 

 by young children, which has already been considered at the close of my chapter 

 on " Articulation." Touching the use of adjectives by young children, I may quote 

 the following remark from Professor Preyer ; — "A very general error must be 

 removed, which consists in the supposition that all children on first beginning to 

 speak use substantives only, and later pass on to the use of adjectives. This is 

 certainly not the case." And he proceeds to give instances drawn from the daily 

 observations of his own child, such as the use of the word " heiss " in the twenty- 

 third month. 



• We shall subsequently see that at this stage of mental evolution there is no 

 well-defined distinction between the different parts of speech. Tlierefore here, 

 and elsewhere throughout this chapter, I use the terms "noun," "adjective," 

 " verVj," &c., in a loose and general sense. 



