ON THE EVOLUTION OF LANGUAGE,
AS EXHIBITED IN THE SPECIALIZATION OF THE GRAMMATIC PROCESSES, THE DIFFERENTIATION OF THE PARTS OF SPEECH, AND THE INTEGRATION OF THE SENTENCE; FROM A STUDY OF INDIAN LANGUAGES.
By J. W. Powell.
Possible ideas and thoughts are vast in number. A distinct word for every distinct idea and thought would require a vast vocabulary. The problem in language is to express many ideas and thoughts with comparatively few words.
Again, in the evolution of any language, progress is from a condition where few ideas are expressed by a few words to a higher, where many ideas are expressed by the use of many words; but the number of all possible ideas or thoughts expressed is increased greatly out of proportion with the increase of the number of words.