Owen—Hybrid Parts of Speech. 
185 
and, as “strike” performs for “express” and “freight” the duty 
of a verb, it is rational and desirable to give to “strike” the in¬ 
flection of a verb. 
It would, moreover, be most effective to pnt the accusative 
sign, the sign of particular service in the beginning clause, 
where it would do most good-—that is, at the beginning of the 
inflected word—and to put the verbal inflectional sign, the 
sign of service in the ending clause, where also it would do 
most good-—that is, at the end of the inflected word. 
While such inflectional possibilities have not perhaps been 
exactly realized, sufficiently close analogy is offered in actual 
practice by the Portuguese infinitive in which (as noticed on 
page 174) a substantive inflection at least precedes a verbal in¬ 
flection. 
Double inflection, as verb and as noun, being accordingly 
conceded as a possibility, it will aid the appreciation of actual 
hybrid inflection, to examine for a moment the possible inflec¬ 
tion of verbal hybrids in its maximum extension. 
In this examination let it be remembered that inflections 
(compare pp, 174-175) serve three different purposes: (1) to fur¬ 
nish elements of thought to be constructed—a purpose effected 
by the endings of e. g. the genitive, dative and ablative cases, 
“domini” for instance (as a singular) contributing to thought- 
materials, not only what is expressed by “master”, but also the 
relational idea expressible by “of”—the inflection being of the 
type which may be known as constructional ; (2) to show abso¬ 
lute position of an idea in the structure to be built, the “ed” of 
“aided,” in “Brown often aided bis cousin”, not only express¬ 
ing past time, but also showing, so far as it identifies the word 
as a verb (indicative), that the idea of aid must be used as 
mid-term of thought to be constructed, no matter with what 
other words it thereby finds itself associated—the inflection be¬ 
ing of the type which may be known as functional ; (3) to show 
an idea’s position relatively to that of some other idea in the 
structure to be built, the “as” of “bonas” showing that the idea 
of goodness must be used adjunctively with some idea con¬ 
ceived as plural, feminine and objective, no matter into what 
part of thought to be constructed such adjunctive service takes 
