338 MENTAL EVOLUTION IN MAN. 



Therefore the absence of any parts of speech in primitive 

 language is due to a generic order of ideation, whereas the 

 unions of parts of speech in any languages which present 

 them is due to the generalizing order of ideation. Or, as 

 Bleek puts it while speaking of the comparatively undifferen- 

 tiated condition of South African languages, "this differs 

 entirely from the principle which prevails in modern English, 

 where a word, without undergoing any change of form, may 

 nevertheless belong to different parts of speech. For in 

 English the parts of speech, though not always differing in 

 sound, are always accurately distinguished in concept ; while 

 in the other case there was as yet no consciousness of any 

 difference, inasmuch as neither form nor position had hitherto 

 called attention to anything of the kind. For forms had not 

 yet made their appearance, and determinate position \i.e. 

 significance expressed by syntax], as, for example, in Chinese, 

 could only arise in a language of highly advanced internal 

 formation." * 



Indeed, if we consider the matter, it is not conceivable 

 that the case could be otherwise. No one will maintain that 

 the sentence-words of young children exhibit the highest 

 elaborations of conceptual thought, on the ground that they 

 present the highest degree of " generality " which it is pos- 

 sible for articulate sounds to express. But if this is not to be 

 suggested as regards the infant child, what possible ground 

 can there be for suggesting it as regards the infant man, or 

 for inferring that aboriginal speech must have been expressive 

 of " general " and " abstract " ideas, merely because the further 

 backwards that we trace the growth of language the less 

 organized do we find its structure to be ? Clearly, the contra- 

 diction arises from a confusion between ideas as generic and 

 general, or between the extension which is due to original 

 vagueness and that which is laboriously acquired by subse- 

 quent precision. An Amoeba is morphologically more "gene- 

 ralized " than a Vertebrate ; but for this very reason it is 

 the less highly evolved as an organism. The philology of 



• Ursprung der Sprache, s. 69, 70, 



