For each of these words determine the
exact nature and extent of the dowry brought by each of the contracting
parties to the wedding.
Hitherto in our study of verbal relationships we have usually started with
the family. Having strayed (as by good luck) into an assembly of kinsmen,
we have observed the common strain and the general characteristics, and
have then "placed" the individual with reference to these. But we do not
normally meet words, any more than we meet men, in the domestic circle. We
meet them and greet them hastily as they hurry through the tasks of the
day, with no other associates about them than such as chance or momentary
need may dictate. If we are to see anything of their family life, it must
be through effort we ourselves put forth. We must be inquisitive about
their conjugal and blood relationships.
How, then, starting with the individual word, can you come into a
knowledge of it, not in its public capacity, but in what is even more
important, its personal connections? You must form the habit of asking two
questions about it: (1) Is it married? (2) Of what family or families was
it born? If you can get an understanding answer to these two questions, an
answer that will tell you what its relations stand for as well as what
their name is, your inquiries will be anything but bootless.
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