All inflection for
agreement is inflection for relation.
In English, three of the grammatic processes are highly specialized.
_Combination_ is used chiefly for derivation, but to some slight extent
for qualification and relation in the paradigmatic categories. But its
use in this manner as compared with many other languages has almost
disappeared.
_Vocalic mutation_ is used to a very limited extent and only by
accident, and can scarcely be said to belong to the English language.
_Intonation_ is used as a grammatic process only to a limited
extent--simply to assist in forming the interrogative and imperative
modes. Its use here is almost rhetorical; in all other cases it is
purely rhetorical.
_Placement_ is largely used in the language, and is highly specialized,
performing the office of exhibiting the relations of words to each other
in the sentence; _i.e._, it is used chiefly for syntactic relation.
Thus one of the four processes does not belong to the English language;
the others are highly specialized.
The purposes for which the processes are used are _derivation_,
_modification_, and _syntactic relation_.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25