BOAS] HANDBOOK OF AMERICAN INDIAN LANGUAGES 103 



OPENING. There are a number of roots \yhich are connected with 

 objects; not, however, naming- them specifically, but indicating the 

 class to which they belong as regards size, shape, or physical char- 

 acter. The few roots which do agree in form with monosyllabic 

 nouns seem to name the object by means of which the act is done. 



The form of the complete verb differs from the ordinary noun in 

 that it has prefixes as well as suflSxes, and in the character of these 

 formative elements, which, with the exceptions noted above, differ 

 from those emplo3^ed in nouns. They differ in function in that they 

 invariably have predicative force, while nouns either lack predicative 

 force or have it incidentally. 



§ 12. Syntactic Relations 



The syntactic relation of subject and object to the predicate, when 

 both are expressed by nouns, is shown by their order in the sentence. 

 When only one is expressed by a noun, it may be determined, in most 

 cases, whether it is intended as subject or object by the form of the 

 incorporated pronoun, which is employed in the verb regardless of 

 the employment or non-emploj^ment of nouns. However, in the case 

 of a subject and object which are both of the third person and both 

 other than adult Hupa, only one of them being expressed as a noun, it 

 is impossible to tell, except from the context, whether such a noun is 

 the subject or object. 



The relation of possession is distinctly and regularly expressed by 

 the prefixing of the possessive pronoun to the limited word and the 

 placing of this compound after the word which limits it. Parts of the 

 body and terms of relationship do not occur without prefixed possess- 

 ive pronouns. Other syntactic relations are expressed b}^ means of 

 post-positions, having the appropriate force, placed after the weaker 

 form of the pronoun. These post-positions, with their accompan3ang 

 pronouns, stand after the nouns which they limit. 



§ 13. Classification 



In the third person of the pronoun, personal and possessive, adult 

 Hupa are distinguished from young and old members of the tribe, 

 from animals and inanimate objects, by a special form. 



There are no grammatical forms by which objects are classified. 

 Classification is sometimes indicated, however, in the verb, the stem 

 expressing the character of the object to which the predicate refers, 



§§12,13 



