BOAS] HANDBOOK OF AMERICAN INDIAN LANGUAGES 27 



define the special idea to be expressed, entail the presence of certain 

 formal elements which determine the relations of the single phonetic 

 groups. If each idea could be expressed by a single phonetic group, 

 languages without form would be possible. Since, however, ideas 

 must be expressed by being reduced to a number of related ideas, the 

 kinds of relation become important elements in articulate speech; 

 and it follows that all languages must contain formal elements, and 

 that their number must be the greater, the fewer the elementary 

 phonetic groups that defuie special ideas. In a language w^hich com- 

 mands a very large, fixed vocabulary, the number of formal elements 

 may become quite small. 



Grainitiatieal JPt'ocesses 



It is important to note that, in the languages of the world, the num- 

 ber of processes which are utilized to express the relations of terms is 

 limited. Presumably this is due to the general characteristics of 

 articulate speech. The only methods that are available for express- 

 ing the relations between definite phonetic groups are their composi- 

 tion in definite order, which may be combined with a mutual phonetic 

 influence of the component elements upon one another, and inner 

 modification of the phonetic groups themselves. Both these meth- 

 ods are found in a great many languages, but sometimes only the 

 method of composition occurs. 



Word and Sentence 



In order to understand the significance of the ideas expressed by 

 independent phonetic groups and of the elements expressing their 

 mutual relations, we have to discuss here the question. What forms 

 the unit of speech ? It has been pointed out before that the phonetic 

 elements as such can be isolated only by analysis, and that they 

 occur in speech only in combinations which are the equivalents of 

 definite concepts. 



Since all speech is intended to serve for the communication of ideas, 

 the natural unit of expression is the sentence; that is to say, a group 

 of articulate sounds which convey a complete idea. It might seem 

 that speech can readily be further subdivided, and that the word 

 also forms a natural unit from wliich the sentence is built up. In 

 most cases, however, it is easy to show that such is not the case, and 

 that the word as such is known only by analysis. This is particularly 



