CL ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT [eth, anx. 20 



mankind they are found to differ from one another in the 

 deg-ree in which they construct monovocable sentences. It 

 may be affirmed that the greater tlie prevalence of mono- 

 vocable sentences the lower is the language in the scale of 

 culture. 



The characteristic which we have here described has been 

 called by various terms, as synthesis, polysynthesis, or encap- 

 sulation — using- as a figure of speech the inclosing of boxes, 

 one within another, in the order of their size. Perhaps it will 

 be better to use the term coined for the purpose bv Lieber. 

 He calls such languages "liolophrastic," and a word-sentence 

 may be called a "holophrasm." Bird sentences seem to be 

 holophrasms, while some bird songs maA' be sentences com- 

 posed of more than one word. In child speech we discover 

 that the first \A'ords spoken are sentences. We may thus con- 

 clude tliat the ])rimal speech was holophi-astic. 



We nuist now set forth the manner in which speech is devel- 

 oped from the primitive liolophrastic condition to that which 

 has sometimes been called analytic, but which we will here call 

 organic. The terms synthetic and analytic are misleading in 

 that they implicate fallacies, hence we have selected the terms 

 liolophrastic and organic as they will better conveA- our 

 meaning. 



The organs of a sentence are the parts of speech of which 

 it is composed. We must therefore deal with the parts of 

 speech. 



In words the office of assertion is fundamental. This office 

 is often called predication. Attempts have lieen made from 

 time to time to group the things which can be asserted or 

 predicated, and they have been called predicaments. In that 

 stage which we have reason to believe to be universal in the 

 lowest culture all the offices of words are performed by one 

 holophrasm. I say to an offender, "Go!" I mean bv the 

 expression, You, the offender, and I further mean to assert a 

 command that he leave ray presence. All of these things are 

 implied in the word go. The word come mav thus be used. 

 So we may use a great variety of imperative verbs. In like 

 manner all adjectives may be used. In savage languages 



