POWELL.] VOICE—MODE—TENSE. 13 
worn, and may appear rather as inflections than as incorporated par- 
ticles. Usually rather distinct present, past, and future tenses are dis- 
covered ; often a remote or ancient past, and less often an immediate 
future. But great specification of time in relation to the present and 
in relation to other time is usually found. 
It was seen above that adverbial particles cannot be separated from 
modal particles. In like manner tense particles cannot be separated 
from adverbial and modal particles. 
In an Indian language adverbs are differentiated only to a limited ex- 
tent. Adverbial qualifications are found in the verb, and thus there are 
a multiplicity of modes and tenses, and no plane of demarkation can be 
drawn between mode and tense. From preceding statements it will ap- 
pear that a verb in an Indian tongue may have incorporated with it a 
great variety of particles, which can be arranged in three general classes, 
i. é., pronominal, adverbial, and prepositional. 
The pronominal particles we have called article pronouns; they serve 
to point out a variety of characteristics in the subject, object, and indi- 
rect object of the verb. They thus subserve purposes which in English 
are subserved by differentiated adjectives as distinct parts of speech. 
They might, therefore, with some propriety, have been called adjective 
particles, but these elements perform another function; they serve the pur- 
pose which is usually called agreement in language; that is, they make 
the verb agree with the subject and object, and thus indicate the syntac- 
tic relation between subject, object, and verb. In this sense they might 
with propriety have been called relation particles, and doubtless this 
function was inmind when some of the older grammarians called them 
transitions. 
The adverbial particles perform the functions of voice, mode, and 
tense, together with many other functions that are performed in lan- 
guages spoken by more highly civilized people by differentiated adverbs, 
adverbial phrases, and clauses. 
The prepositional particles perform the function of indicating a great 
variety of subordinate relations, like the prepositions used as distinct 
parts of speech in English. 
By the demonstrative function of some of the pronominal particles, 
they are closely related to adverbial particles, and adverbial particles 
are closely related to prepositional particles, so that, it will be sometimes 
difficult to say of a particular particle whether it be pronominal or ad- 
verbial, and of another particular particle whether it be adverbial or 
prepositional. 
Thus the three classes of particles are not separated by absolute planes 
of demarkation. 
The use of these particles as parts of the verb; the use of nouns, ad- 
jectives, adverbs, and prepositions as intransitive verbs; and the direct 
use of verbs as nouns, adjectives, and adverbs, make the study of an 
Indian tongue to a large extent the study of its verbs. 
