of the University of Illinois.

EDWARD SAPIR.

OTTAWA, ONT.,
April 8, 1921.




CONTENTS

PREFACE

CHAPTER

I. INTRODUCTORY: LANGUAGE DEFINED

Language a cultural, not a biologically inherited, function.
Futility of interjectional and sound-imitative theories of the
origin of speech. Definition of language. The psycho-physical basis
of speech. Concepts and language. Is thought possible without
language? Abbreviations and transfers of the speech process. The
universality of language.

II. THE ELEMENTS OF SPEECH

Sounds not properly elements of speech. Words and significant parts
of words (radical elements, grammatical elements). Types of words.
The word a formal, not a functional unit. The word has a real