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HINTS AND EXPLANATIONS. 49 
placed immediately before it. For this reason the term “article pronoun” 
has been chosen rather than ‘‘attached pronoun.” The older term, transi- 
tion, was given to them because of their analogy in function to verbal 
inflections. 
The personal and article pronouns can best be studied in connection with 
the transitive verbs with which they are used. 
§ 27.—POSSESSION. 
Possession is usually indicated by the use of possessive pronouns, 
personal or article. Usually the possessive pronouns differ but little from 
the personal pronouns. Nouns rarely or never have possessive forms, the 
method being to say “John his horse,” rather than ‘John’s horse.” Two 
characters of possession are recognized in Indian tongues, natural and arti- 
ficial. Natural possession is inherent possession; that which is possessed 
” “my father,” “my mother.” 
cannot be transferred, as ‘‘my hand,” “‘my eye, 
Artificial possession is accidental; the thing possessed may be transferred, 
as ‘‘my hat,” ‘‘my horse.” 
These classes of possession will appear in the use of two distinct forms 
of possessive pronouns. 
Possession is usually affirmed by the use of a verb signifying to have 
or to possess, and natural possession may be predicated with one verb, and 
artificial possession with another. 
There is still another way of affirming possession. The noun which 
is the name of the article possessed will have attached to it a particle pred- 
icating possession, and this particle may be changed or modified to denote 
mode, tense, &c.: and, finally, we may have the noun, which is the name 
of the thing possessed, varied to denote person, number, and gender of 
the possessor, the noun itself varied to denote person, number, and gender 
of the thing possessed, and the attached predicating particle varied to denote 
mode and tense, all constituting one word. 
§ 28.-INTRANSITIVE VERBS—ADJECTIVES, ADVERBS, PREPOSITIONS, 
AND NOUNS USED AS VERBS. 
The verb is relatively of much greater importance in an Indian tongue 
than in a civilized language. To a large extent the pronoun is incorpo- 
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