48 INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF INDIAN LANGUAGES. 
the subject and object nouns are expressed and when they are not. The 
student may at first find some difficulty with these article pronouns. Sin- 
gular, dual, and plural forms will be found. Sometimes distinct incorporated 
particles will be used for subject and object, but often this will not be the 
case. If the subject only is expressed, one particle may be used; if the 
object only is expressed, another particle; but if subject and object are 
expressed, an entirely different particle may stand for both. 
But it is in the genders of these article pronouns that the greatest diffi- 
culty may be found. The student must entirely free his mind of the idea that 
gender is simply a distinction of sex. In Indian tongues, genders usually are 
methods of classification primarily into animate and inanimate. The animate 
may be again divided into male and female, but this is rarely the case. Often 
by these genders all objects are classified on characteristics found in their atti- 
tudes or supposed constitution. Thus we may have the animate and inani- 
mate, one or both, divided into the standing, the sitting, and the lying; or they 
may be divided into the watery, the mushy, the earthy, the stony, the woody, and 
the fleshy. The gender of these article pronouns has rarely been worked 
out in any language. The extent to which these classifications enter into 
the article pronouns is not well known. The subject requires more thor- 
ough study. These incorporated particles are here called article pronouns. 
In the conjugation of the verb they take an important part, and have by 
some writers been called transitions. Besides pointing out with particu- 
larity the person, number, and gender of the subject and object, they per- 
form the same offices that are usually performed by those inflections of the 
verb that occur to make them agree in gender, number, and person with 
the subject. In those Indian languages where the article pronouns are not 
found, and the personal pronouns only are used, the verb is usually in- 
flected to agree with the subject or object, or both, in the same particulars. 
The article pronouns, as they point out person, number, gender, and 
case of the subject and object, are not simple particles, but to a greater or 
lesser extent compound; their component elements may be broken apart 
and placed in different parts of the verb. Again, the article pronoun in 
some languages may have its elements combined into a distinct word 
in such a manner that it will not be incorporated in the verb, but will be 
