Expression of Thought. 
7 
of the mind. Strictly speaking, language is a process by which 
the hearer is induced to erect in his own mind a thought-struc¬ 
ture like that of the speaker. This result is effected by stimuli 
known as words. 1 Its first stage is accomplished when the 
hearer’s mind contains the elements of the speaker’s thought. 
Let it be supposed that this stage has been reached. Much 
still remains to be done. For instance, both speaker and hearer 
may be thinking of a missionary, a cannibal and the relation of 
eater to food; but one may have it that the cannibal eats the 
missionary, while the other supposes that the missionary de¬ 
vours the cannibal. In the expression of more complex thought 
such possibilities become probabilities of the greatest import¬ 
ance. It appears then plainly that speaker and hearer must not 
only have in mind the same ideas; they must also build them 
together by the same plan. 
Of the several ways of meeting this need I will mention only 
the strictly linguistic. These are two in number, often con¬ 
fused, but radically different. Using an objective illustration, 
suppose I give you the pieces of a dissected map — that of the 
United States—and invite you to put them rightly together. You 
have the elements of a structure, but not its plan. If now I 
give you the latitude and longitude of each state-capital, they 
constitute a sort of plan. The instructions furnished for each 
state are moreover independent of all other states. They may 
in that sense be called absolute. 
Precisely analogous instructions are given by language, 
though confined for the most part to word-endings. In the 
sentence “ They hear us ” the ending of the word "they” is an 
order to use the word as first term. Instruction of this kind I 
call functional. 
Suppose now that, in giving you the pieces of the map, I 
name no latitude or longitude; yoii are still amply provided with 
instructions, but of another sort. Examine for instance the 
Indiana section. On its southern edge you note a particular 
curve. This detail you may take as an order to put Indiana 
next to some other state with a similar curve, namely Kentucky. 
1 Other stimuli, gesture etc., are in this investigation neglected. 
