I'owKLL] PHILOLOGY CLI 



adjectives ma}^ be conjugated as verbs in the different voices, 

 modes, tenses, numbers, and persons. We have in Eng'hsh 

 many so-called ^•erbs ■which are in fact adjectives used as verbs 

 in this manner. Participles and adjectives are one in office; 

 only difference in office constitutes different parts of speech. 

 In all verljs the office of assertion still remains in the words. 

 Words which still retain this office are called verbs, whether 

 they express action or not; that which is essential to the part of 

 speech wliich we call a verb is the office which it performs as 

 an asserter. When the verb to he is used as an asserter it is a 

 more fully differentiated verb. All other verbs are less differ- 

 entiated, for they perform other offices in a greater degree. 

 In the expression "I hear," hear is both an asserter and an 

 adjective. The two offices may be differentiated by using two 

 words, "I am hearing," am being the asserter and hearing the 

 adjective. Even yet am is not a fully differentiated asserter, 

 for a.)ii also conve^'S the idea of first person, singular number, 

 and present tense. 



The degree to which the offices of words are specialized is 

 variable in different languages, and it is also A-ariable in differ- 

 ent ways of expression found in the same language. The verb 

 often contains in itself the elements of the holophrasm, which 

 may or may not be repeated in the sentence, when the verb is 

 said to agree in such characteristic with its subject or even with 

 its object, using these terms in their grammatical sense. This 

 is a characteristic of the classical languages. Such tongues 

 give duplicate expression to ideas, and hence require duplicate 

 efforts of thought and expression. 



The evolution of modern languages out of languages in 

 which liolophrnstic methods prevail has as its essential motive 

 economy of thought and speed i. This is obtained by the 

 atrophy of methods of agreement. When number is exjn'essed 

 in the noun, in the adjective, and also in the verb or asserter, 

 the numljer must be considered three times and expressed three 

 times. The greatest economy is yet not all told. When such 

 methods of expression are replaced by organic methods, and 

 only one word is used to express the number, it is found that 

 in the vast majority of cases the purpose of the speaker is 



