18 HISTORY OF LANGUAGE 



grammar; it establishes determinations of fact far behind the point 

 of earliest record, and enables historical grammar to push its lines of 

 descent in the form of "dotted lines" far back into the unwritten 

 past. 



It was the discovery of Sanskrit to the attention and use of Euro- 

 pean scholars at the close of the eighteenth century that gave occa- 

 sion to an effective use of the comparative method and a consequent 

 establishment of a veritable comparative grammar. But in two other 

 distinct ways it exercised a notable influence upon the study of lan- 

 guage. First, it offered to observation a language whose structure 

 yielded itself readily to analysis in terms of the adaptation of its 

 formal mechanism to the expression of modifications of thought, and 

 thus gave an encouragement to the dissection of words in the interest 

 of tracing the principles of their formation. Second, the Hindoo 

 national grammar itself presented to Western scholars an illustration 

 of accuracy and completeness in collecting, codifying, and reporting 

 the facts of a language, especially such as related to phonology, inflec- 

 tion, and word-formation, that involved the necessity of a complete 

 revolution in the whole attitude of grammatical procedure. The 

 discovery of Panini and the Pratic,akhyas meant far more to the 

 science of language than the discovery of the Vedas. The grammar of 

 the Greeks had marked a path so clear, and established a tradition so 

 strong, guaranteed in a prestige so high, that the linguistics of the 

 West through all the generations faithfully abode in the way. The 

 grammatical categories once taught and established became the ir- 

 refragable moulds of grammatical thought, and constituted a system 

 so complete in its enslaving power that if any man ever suspected 

 himself in bondage he was yet unable to identify his bonds. 



The Greeks had addressed themselves to linguistic reflection in 

 connection with their study of the content and the forms of thought ; 

 grammar arose as the handmaiden of philosophy. They assumed, 

 without consciously and expressly formulating it as a doctrine, that 

 language is the inseparable shadow of thought, and therefore pro- 

 ceeded without more ado to find in its structure and parts replicas 

 of the substances and moulds of thought. They sought among the 

 facts of language for illustrations of theories; it did not occur to them 

 to collect the facts and organize them to yield theirown doctrine. Two 

 distinct practical uses finally brought the chief materials of rules and 

 principles to formulation in the guise of a system of descriptive 

 grammar: first, the interpretation of Homer and the establishment 

 of a correct text; second, the teaching of Greek to aliens, and the 

 establishment of a standard by which to teach. These practical uses 

 came in, however, rather as fortunate opportunities for practical 

 application of an established discipline than as the motives to its 

 creation. With the Hindoos it was the direct reverse. They had a 



