BOAS] HANDBOOK OF AMERICAN INDIAN LANGUAGES 657 



§ 58. Nouns Expressing Adjectival and Verbal Ideas 



In Chinook a great many adjectives and verbs are expressed by 

 substantives. In these expressions the quality or action becomes 

 the subject or object of the sentence, as the case may be. The 

 Chinook will say, the man's badness killed the child's poverty, 

 meaning that the bad man killed the poor child. It is true that such 

 expressions are not entirely unfamiliar to us; for we can say, he 



WENT THE whole LENGTH OF THE WAY, or HE MASTERED THE DIFFI- 

 CULTIES OF THE PROBLEM, in wliich wc also treat a quality as objec- 

 tive. In Chinook this method is applied to a greater extent than in 

 any other language I know. Many qualities are used only as abstract 

 nouns, while others may be transformed into adjectives by the prefix 

 g-, which expresses possession (see § 17.6) ; for instance: 



id'q.'atxal his badness 



gid'qiatxal the one who has his badness (i. e., the bad one) 



In the same way, verbs appear as nouns. This also is a mode of 

 expression not unfamiliar to us, although the frequent application of 

 such expressions and the ideas they express appear very strange. 

 We can say, like the Chinook, he makes a hit and he has a sick- 

 ness, instead of he hits and he is sick; we can even use the verbal 

 idea as the subject of a transitive verb, or form analogous passive 

 constructions; for instance, sorrow filled his heart, he was 

 SEIZED BY A FIT OF ANGER; but the abscncc or rarity of the corre- 

 sponding verbal forms and the strong personification of the verbal 

 idea in the noun appear to us quite strange. 



Most of the nouns of this class are always used with the possessive 

 pronoun. The following examples illustrate their uses: 



alta (1) itsand'lcstx (2) oLklE'iiLklEn (3) agid'lotk (4) iklEnd'tan 

 (5) now (1) she put (4) potentilla-roots (5) into (4) the small- 

 ness of (2) a clam basket (3) 43.22 



oho' (1) itci'qoqcin (2) Lia'xauyam (3) .' oho' (1) my wife's 

 relative's (2) poverty (3) ! i. e., oh, my poor relative ! 67.21 



taqe' (1) ee'tcxdt (2) id'lkuile (3) just like (1) a bear's (2) simi- 

 larity (3) 275.11 



qulE'tc (1) igo' LgEli (2) tcdxt (3) lo'i (4) once more (1) her lie 



(2) has done her (3) loi (4) i. e., loi has lied again 163.14 

 o'lo (1) aktd'x (2) te'lx-Em (3) hunger (1) acts on (2) the people 



(3) 260.16 



44877— Bull. 40, pt 1—10 42 § 58 



