BOAS] HANDBOOK OF INDIAN LANGUAGES TAKELMA 53 



in general method, however much the details may vary, between 

 Takelma and languages that have been dignified by the name " inflec- 

 tional." It is generally said, in definmg inflection, that languages 

 of the inflectional as contrasted with those of the agglutinative type 

 make use of words of indivisible psychic value, in which the stem and 

 the various grammatical elements have entirely lost their single indi- 

 vidualities, but have "chemically" (!) coalesced into a single form- 

 unit; in other words, the word is not a mere mosaic of phonetic 

 materials, of which each is the necessary symbol of some special 

 concept (stem) or logical category (grammatical element). 



In support of the actual existence of this admired lack of a one- 

 to-one correspondence between a grammatical category and its pho- 

 netic expression is often quoted the multiplicity of elements that 

 serve to symbolize the same concept; e. g., Lat. -i, • ae, -a, -es, -us, all 

 indicate that the idea of a plurality of subjects is to be associated 

 with the concrete idea given by the main body of the words to 

 which they are attached. Furthermore, variability of the stem or 

 base itself is frequently adduced as a proof of its lack of even a 

 relative degree of individuality apart from the forms from which 

 by analysis it has been abstracted; e. g., German hind-, hand-, hund-, 

 hand-, hund-. These two characteristics are very far indeed from 

 'constituting anything like a definition of inflection, but they are 

 often referred to as peculiar to it, and hence may well serve us as 

 approximate tests. 



As regards the first test, we find that just such a multiplicity of 

 phonetic symbols for the same, or approximately the same, concept, 

 is characteristic of Takelma. The idea of possession of an object by 

 a person or thing other than the speaker or person addressed is 

 expressed by -xa, -a, -da (-fa), -f, or -, all of which are best rendered 

 by HIS, HER, ITS, THEIR (the ideas of gender and number do not 

 here enter as requiring grammatical expression). Similarly, the idea 

 of the person speaking as subject of the action or state predicated 

 by the main body of the verb is expressed by the various elements 

 -fe^ i-de^), -fe^ (,-de^), -% -n, -¥a^ (-ga^), all of which are best ren- 

 dered in English by "I." -fe^ is confined to the aorist of intransi- 

 tive verbs; -fe'' is future intransitive; -% is aorist transitive; -n is 

 future transitive; and -¥a^ is used in all inferential forms, whether 

 transitive or intransitive. 



§ 25 



