ABSTRACT
In turning to the subject of the dynamics of sentence-structure we approach a speech-element which, as it occurs in the various languages of the earth, reveals a diversity in form and general variegation in structure far beyond that of any other speech-element which we have hitherto investigated. 1 For example, some languages, such as Chinese, show the interrelationship of the component words of a sentence solely by the positional arrangement of these words in the sentence; other languages, such as Latin, obviate the necessity for stringent positional arrangement by appending inflectional affixes to many of the component words of the sentence; still other languages like modern German, employ the devices both of positional arrangement and of inflection. As a further example of diversity, most languages, such as English, have the categories of noun and verb in their material for sentence-structure, but so large a number of languages makes no use of these two categories as to assure us that they are not a sine qua non of sentence-formation. 2 If we view other salient differences among languages we find: some commence their sentences with the subject, others with the verb, and still others commence with the subject under certain conditions and with the verb under others; in some languages the modifying adjective precedes its noun, in others it follows. So great, then, is the multifariousness of specific sentence-forms that it would be unsafe to propound general laws of sentence-dynamics on the basis of data derived solely from a few languages. Hence, instead of proceeding from the particular to the general, we shall proceed from the general (in Part I, pages 187 ff.) to the particular (in Part II, pages 224 ff.). Though Part I will be a discussion of general principles, our investigation will not for that reason cease to be empirical, since we shall discuss primarily the data derived empirically in our preceding investigation of words, phonemes, and morphemes. For, these speech-elements which we have just studied are not only configurations in their own right, they are likewise simultaneously the structural elements of sentences. Hence for our impending investigation of the incredibly complicated field of sentence-dynamics we have already laid a substantial foundation through the study of the behavior of the component elements.
