216 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 40 



SON, yd'nAh clouds, td'na sea-water, have or may present verbal 

 forms. Generally, however, a noun which is used as a predicate is 

 followed by a verbal stem, or appears incorporated, as, V gldagaf gAn 

 HE WAS A chief's SON, V tcd'ahdas he had a spear (from tcd'oL 

 spear). 



Verbs that change into nouns usually become abstract, their 

 origin being thus easily recognized. The names for instruments, 

 store-articles, and some other things, are generally descriptive terms 

 and thus verbal, but they have dropped their verbal suffixes and 

 taken on a noun-forming suffix. Rarely a verb is turned into a 

 passive and then into a noun by prefixing ta and suffixing gai (see 

 § 17.4, p. 236). These are the only cases in which we find verbal 

 prefixes in nouns. 



§ 8. Composition 



Although there is much freedom in the composition of stem- 

 complexes, a number of types may readily be distinguished. The 

 more fully developed complexes of this kind generally express by an 

 initial element an idea of modality, most commonly instrumentality; 

 by a second element, the nominal object; by a third element, the 

 peculiar kind of action; and by a fourth element, the local relations 

 of the action. In those cases in which the various elements are 

 best developed, the first element appears as an instrumental prefiix; 

 the second, as a term expressing a group of nouns characterized by a 

 a certain shape ; the third is a verbal stem ; and the fourth expresses 

 direction and location. 



These word-complexes are followed by suffixes expressing tense, 

 mood, and related concepts. 



§ 9. Classification of Nouns 



The classification of nouns, referred to before, is one of the charac- 

 teristic traits of the language. The groups characterize objects as 

 "long," "slender," "round," "flat," "angular," "thread-like,'* 

 "animate," etc. On account of the extended use of these classifiers, 

 incorporation of the noun itself is comparatively speaking rare. It is 

 here represented by the use of the classifiers which express the subject 

 of the intransitive verb, or the object of the transitive verb as a mem- 

 ber of a certain class of things, the principle of classification being 

 form. 



On the other hand, the same verbal stems — like "to carry," 

 "push," "move," "be" — are used, on the whole, in relation to all 



§§8,9 



