Owen-Hybrid Parts of Speech. 
Ill 
CHAPTER I. 
ORIENTATION. 
HYBRIDS DEFINED. 
By a hybrid part of speech is meant, as indicated on the 
title page, a single, nnrepeated word which, in a single expres¬ 
sion, has a legitimate claim to different’ ratings as a part of 
speech. 4 As words thus operating will be found to exhibit some, 
but not all the characteristics of two parts of speech, they may 
conveniently be known as hybrids. 
As the only adequate distinctive of a primary word-class 
known as a part of speech, I recognize the particular thought- 
membership of what the word expresses. Accordingly, the 
rating of the hybrid, as at once two different parts of speech, 
implies that what it expresses does at once a double 5 service as 
thought-member. 
POSSIBLE HYBRIDS. 
To make sure of covering all the possibilities of double mem¬ 
bership in thought, I postulate that an idea serving in any mem- 
4 Thus, in “The doctor forbade my eating meat,” the adjunctive “my” 
may be said to look upon “eating” as a noun, which again is regarded 
by “meat” as a verb. 
As in previous publications, the “I” will be used with the utmost 
freedom, for the sake of its convenience in the exhibition of mental 
operation, as well as its special fitness in the expression of what must 
rank as largely personal opinion only. Also in illustrations, when 
brevity becomes important, instead of the idea expressed by a given 
word, the word itself will be cited, when there seems to be no danger 
of misapprehension. 
5 The case of treble membership will be examined later. 
