Mcr.EE] COMPARATIVE LEXICOLOGY 301* 



of the multiplication of, and diminution in the number of, pronominative elements. 

 Speech became specific rather than raonophrastic and indefinite, and sought to 

 express individual concepts by terms of definite meaning rather than by phrases 

 involving a plurality of concepts and indefiniteness. The mouophrasm or pronomi- 

 inative element expressive of several individual ideas is resolved not by a division 

 of the body of the element, but rather by the addition of elements denotive (though 

 primarily connotivo) of action, which had been previously wholly or in part symbol- 

 ized by the pronominative element, or in part inferred from the situation. 



Thus it maybe seen that these jironominative elements, miscalled pronouns, are 

 not substitutes for nouns, but that the converse statement is the truer one. These 

 elements have been classed together as forming a part of speech in the same cat- 

 egory with the noun and the verb; but it has been seen that the pronominative 

 is not at all a part of speech, involving sematically within itself the distinct con- 

 cepts of several so-called parts of speech. To make this plain, take from the highly 

 differentiated English tongue the following sentences: "/ will give you to 7i<t. 

 What can it bef The elk is one of the most timid animals that walk." In the first, 

 I, ijoii, and her respectively show the relation of the three persons indicated, not 

 only to the act of giving but also to the act of speaking, a iunction that does not 

 belong to nouns; without change of form they exjiress what is called person, num- 

 ber, case, and sex. And it would be extremely difficult, if not absolutely impossible, 

 to supply the nouns for which what in the second and lliat in the third are substi- 

 tutes; for in the last, not even a noun and a conjunction will answer. Such in part 

 are the concejits for which the pronominative elements stand and which give them 

 such great vitality. 



Along with these pronominative elements go the numerals, which were primarily 

 the products of a process of cancellation of common factors from original exi)ressions 

 connoting the required number ; and so when once the abbreviated expressions became 

 usual there was no disposition to displace them, .and increasing use making them more 

 definite, rendered them more and more permanent. This in brief is the chief cause of 

 the obstinate persistency of numerals in all known languages. An examination of 

 the accompanying lists of number-names will greatly aid in understamling what is 

 meant. The late Professor Whitney, when discussing these elements in the Aryan 

 or Indo-European family, uses the following instructive language: 



"When, however, we seek for words which are clearly and palpably identical in 

 all or nearly all the branches of the family, we have to resort to certain special 

 classes, as the numerals and the pronouns. The reason of this it is not difticult to 

 point out. For a large jiortion of the objects, acts, and states, of the names for 

 which our languages are composed, it is comparatively easy to find new designa- 

 tions. They offer numerous salient points for the names-giving faculty to seize 

 upon; the characteristic qualities, the analogies with other things, which suggest 

 and call forth synonymous or nearly synonymous titles, are many. * * » But 

 for the numerals and the pronouns our languages have never shown any disposition 

 to create a synonymy. It was, as we may truly say, no easy task for the linguistic 

 faculty to arrive at a suitable sign for the ideas they convey; and when the sign 

 was once found, it maintained itself thenceforth in use everywhere, without danger 

 of replacement by any other of later coinage. Hence, all the Indo-European 

 nations, however widely they may be separated and however discordant in manners 

 and civilization, count with the same words and use the same personal pronouns in 

 Individual address — the same, with the exception, of course, of the changes which 

 phonetic corruption has wrought upon their forms." ' 



And it is on account of the great vitality and persistency of these two groups of 

 vocables that the pronominative elements and the numerals have been given first 

 place in the comparison between the Seri and the Yuman tongues to determine 

 relationship or want of relationship between the two languages. 



' Language and the Study of Language, New York, 1874, pp. 194-195. 



