loo TRANSACTIONS iSgg-'oo 



seem to be much difference between a term expressive of action (a 

 verb) and a noun. In the fetich age which forms the back ground 

 of all human history inanimate things were freely credited with 

 life and power. The noun, there is reason to think, made its ap- 

 pearance in the double form of substantive and adjective : a thing 

 could express a quality, and a quality could express a thing. It 

 was in a later age that some nouns (names) were told off for ex- 

 clusive use as substantives and some for exclusive use as adjectives. 

 Next came adverbs formed from substantives and adjectives ; then 

 prepositions which, in the main, are transformed adverbs ; and 

 finally conjunctions, formed from whatever might come handy, 

 and constituting the highest triumph of rational language, as being 

 the most abstract in their nature, and thus the furthest removed 

 from onomatopoeia or the representation of things by sounds. 

 The conjunction represents a pure thought. Nothing has so 

 greatly contributed to produce the impression that language must 

 be of miraculous origin as the presence in it of words repre- 

 sentative not of things but of mental attitudes. The simple word 

 " if " has started many a profound train of thought. 



I have spoken of onomatopoeia. In discussions on the origin 

 of language it has held an important place. That it had to do 

 with the formation of not a few vocables there can be no doubt ; 

 and yet the so-called roots of language do not manifest its in- 

 fluence to any greater extent than the developed words we are 

 daily using, many of which are clearlj^ of onomatopoeic origin. 

 The late Professor Whitney, however, makes a very true remark 

 when he says that ' ' the actual permanent beginnings of speech 

 are only reached when the natural (or imitative) basis is abandon- 

 ed, and signs begin to be used, not because a natural suggestive- 

 ness is seen in them, but by imitation from the example of others 

 who have been observed to use the same sign for the same 

 purpose. Then for the first time," he continues, " the means of 

 communication becomes something to be handed down, rather 

 than made anew by each individual ; it takes on that traditional 

 character which is the essential mark of all human institutions, 

 which appears not less in the forms of social organization, the 

 details of religious ceremonial, the methods of art and the arts, 

 than in language. "* It is manifest upon a moment's reflection that 



*Encyclop3edia Britannica Vol.xviii, page 768. 



