ficult to say of a particular particle whether it be pronominal or
adverbial, and of another particular particle whether it be adverbial or
prepositional.

Thus the three classes of particles are not separated by absolute planes
of demarkation.

The use of these particles as parts of the verb; the use of nouns,
adjectives, adverbs, and prepositions as intransitive verbs; and the
direct use of verbs as nouns, adjectives, and adverbs, make the study
of an Indian tongue to a large extent the study of its verbs.

To the extent that voice, mode, and tense are accomplished by the use of
agglutinated particles or inflections, to that extent adverbs and verbs
are undifferentiated.

To the extent that adverbs are found as incorporated particles in verbs,
the two parts of speech are undifferentiated.

To the extent that prepositions are particles incorporated in the verb,
prepositions and verbs are undifferentiated.

To the extent that prepositions are affixed to nouns, prepositions and
nouns are undifferentiated.

In all these particulars it is seen that the Indian tongues belong to
a very low type of organization. Various scholars have called attention
to this feature by describing Indian languages as being holophrastic,
polysynthetic, or synthetic. The term synthetic is perhaps the best,
and may be used as synonymous with undifferentiated.

Indian tongues, therefore, may be said to be highly synthetic in that
their parts of speech are imperfectly differentiated.

In these same particulars the English language is highly organized, as
the parts of speech are highly differentiated. Yet the difference is one
of degree, not of kind.

To the extent in the English language that inflection is used for
qualification, as for person, number, and gender of the noun and
pronoun, and for mode and tense in the verb, to that extent the parts of
speech are undifferentiated. But we have seen that inflection is used
for this purpose to a very slight extent.

There is yet in the English language one important differentiation which
has been but partially accomplished. Verbs as usually considered are
undifferentiated parts of speech; they are nouns and adjectives, one or
both, and predicants. The predicant simple is a distinct part of speech.
The English language has but one, the verb _to be_, and this is not
always a pure predicant, for it sometimes contains within itself an
adverbial element when it is conjugated for mode and tense,