760 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 40 



can be analyzed into elements that have at most the feeblest kind of 

 sense ; it is only as they stand in compound form that they take on a 

 special meaning. It is not altogether clear how these stems, so vague 

 and subtle as they stand alone, came to convey the sensuous notions 

 that they do when thrown together into a group; how, for example, 

 an initial stem introduces a general notion, and forms a group com- 

 plete in statement but incomplete in sense, as when in composition it 

 terminates with only a pronominal ending. Yet such a group can 

 be of sufficiently frequent use as to become an idiom ; in that case it 

 takes on an added sense, which is due not so much perhaps to the 

 inherent meaning of the combined stem and pronoun as to an acquired 

 association with a particular activity. The psychological peculiarity 

 of the process is more marked in the wider developments, as when 

 initial and secondary stems combine for the larger groups. The 

 components seem to stand toward each other in the position of quali- 

 fiers, the sense of one qualifying the sense of another with an effect 

 of directing the meaning toward a particular direction. But, what- 

 ever be the influence at work, the result is a specialization of meaning, 

 not only of the single member in the group, but of all the members as 

 they stand together with reference to one another. The stems seem 

 charged with a latent meaning which becomes evident only when 

 they appear in certain relations: out of those relations they stand like 

 empty symbols. It is important to emphasize the fact that the order 

 of stems in a group is psychologically fixed. Some stems precede 

 and others follow, not with a freedom of position and not in a hap- 

 hazard manner, but with a consecutive sequence that is maintained 

 from beginning to end with firm stability. 



The following examples illustrate these principles of composition. 

 A general summary of the process can thus be put in illustration : 



poni is an initial stem signifying no more, no longer: its 

 original sense comes out best by adding the terminal animate 

 pronoun, and making pd'niwa. The group means that one 

 has previously been engaged in an activity, and has now come 

 into a state of cessation, making altogether a rather vague 

 statement, as it stands unrelated to anything else. But travel 

 has made a figure of speech of it, and so it has come to be the 

 particular idiom for one camps, one goes into camp. So 

 much for the simpler form of a combination. 

 An initial stem, pAg-, has the general sense of striking against 

 something; -a Jew- is a secondary stem denoting resistance, 

 §14 



