328 MENTAL EVOLUTION IN MAN, 



importance, were we to estimate it by a merely psychological 

 analysis of what we now find in the life-history of the 

 individual. 



It is perfectly true, as Professor Max Mliller says, that " if 

 an English child says ' Up,* that up is, to his mind, noun, 

 verb, and adjective, all in one." Nevertheless, in a young child, 

 from the very first, there is a marked tendency to observe the 

 distinctions which belong to the principal parts of speech. 

 The earliest words uttered by my own children have always 

 been nouns and proper names, such as " Star," " Mamma," 

 " Papa," " Ilda," &c. ; and although, later on, some of these 

 earliest words might assume the functions of adjectives by 

 being used in apposition with other nouns subsequently 

 acquired (such as " Mamma-ba," for a sheep, and "Ilda-ba" 

 for a lamb), neither the nouns nor the adjectives came to be 

 used as verbs. It has been previously shown that the use of 

 adjectives is acquired almost as soon as that of substantives ; 

 and although the poverty of the child's vocabulary then often 

 necessitates the adjectives being used as substantives, the 

 substantives as adjectives, and both as rudimentary pro- 

 positions, still there remains a distinction between them as 

 object-words and quality-words. Similarly, although action- 

 words and condition-words are often forced into the position 

 of object-words and quality-words, it is apparent that the 

 primary idea attaching to them is that which properly belongs 

 to a verb. And, of course, the same remarks apply to relation- 

 words, such as " Up." 



Take, for instance, the cases of pre-conceptual predication 

 which were previously quoted from Mr. Sully, namely, " Bow- 

 wow" = "That is a dog;" "Ot" = "This milk is hot;" 

 "Dow" = "My plaything is down;" " Dit ki" = " Sister is 

 crying ; " " Dit naughty "=" Sister is naughty ; " " Dit dow ga " 

 =" Sister is down on the grass." In all these cases it is 

 evident that the child is displaying a true perception of the 

 different functions which severally belong to the different 

 parts of speech ; and so far as psychological analysis alone 

 could carry us, there would be nothing to show that the 



