In this division are placed signs of differing forms which are used
in senses so nearly the same as to have only a slight shade of
distinction, or sometimes to be practically interchangeable. The
comprehensive and metaphorical character of signs renders more of them
interchangeable than is the case with words; still, like words,
some signs with essential resemblance of meaning have partial and
subordinate differences made by etymology or usage. Doubtless signs
are purposely selected as delineating the most striking outlines of
an object, or the most characteristic features of an action; but
different individuals, and likewise different bodies of people, would
not always agree in the selection of those outlines and features.
Taking the illustration of the attempt to invent a sign for _bird_,
before used, any one of a dozen, signs might have been agreed upon
with equal appropriateness, and, in fact, a number have been so
selected by several individuals and tribes, each one, therefore, being
a synonym of the other. Another example of this is in the signs for
_deer_, designated by various modes of expressing fleetness, by his
gait when not in rapid motion, by the shape of his horns, by the
color of his tail, and sometimes by combinations of several of those
characteristics. Each of these signs may be indefinitely abbreviated,
and therefore create indefinite diversity. Another illustration, in
which an association of ideas is apparent, is in the upward raising
of the index in front of and above the head, which means _above_
(sometimes containing the religious conception of _heaven, great
spirit_, &c.), and also _now, to-day_. Not unfrequently these several
signs to express the same ideas are used interchangeably by the same
people, and some one of the duplicates or triplicates may have been
noticed by separate observers to the exclusion of the others. On
the other hand, they might all have been noticed, but each one among
different bodies. Thus confusing reports would be received, which
might either be erroneous in deducing the prevalence of particular
signs or the opposite. Sometimes the synonym may be recognized as an
imported sign, used with another tribe known to affect it. Sometimes
the diverse signs to express the same thing are only different trials
at reaching the intelligence of the person addressed. An account is
given by Lieut. Heber M. Creel, Seventh Cavalry, U.S.A., of an old
Cheyenne squaw, who made about twenty successive and original signs
to a recruit of the Fourth Cavalry to let him know that she wanted to
obtain out of a wagon a piece of cloth belonging to her, to wipe out
an oven preparatory to baking bread. Thus by tradition, importation,
recent invention, or from all these causes together, several signs
entirely distinct are produced for the same object or action.
This class is not intended to embrace the cases common both to sign
and oral language where the same sign has several meanings, according
to the expression, whether facial or vocal, and the general manner
accompanying its delivery. The sign given, for "stop talking" on page
339 may be used in simple acquiescence, "very well," "all right!" or
for comprehension, "I understand;" or in impatience, "you have talked
enough!" which may be carried further to express actual anger in the
violent "shut up!" But all these grades of thought accompany the idea
of a cessation of talk. In like manner an acquaintance of the writer
asking the same favor (a permission to go through their camp) of
two chiefs, was answered by both with the sign generally used for
repletion after eating, viz., the index and thumb turned toward the
body, passed up from the abdomen to the throat; but in the one case,
being made with a gentle motion and pleasant look, it meant, "I am
satisfied," and granted the request; in the other, made violently,
with the accompaniment of a truculent frown, it read, "I have had
enough of that!" But these two meanings might also have been expressed
by different intonations of the English word "enough." The class of
signs now in view is better exemplified by the French word _souris_,
which is spelled and pronounced precisely the same with the two wholly
distinct and independent significations of _smile_ and _mouse_. From
many examples may be selected the Omaha sign for _think, guess_, which
is precisely the same as that of the Absaroka, Shoshoni and Banak for
_brave_, see page 414. The context alone, both of the sign and the
word, determines in what one of its senses it is at the time used, but
it is not discriminated merely by a difference in expression.
It would have been very remarkable if precisely the same sign were not
used by different or even the same persons or bodies of people with
wholly distinct significations. The graphic forms for objects and
ideas are much more likely to be coincident than sound is for similar
expressions, yet in all oral languages the same precise sound is used
for utterly diverse meanings. The first conception of many different
objects must have been the same. It has been found; indeed, that
the homophony of words and the homomorphy of ideographic pictures is
noticeable in opposite significations, the conceptions arising from
the opposition itself. The differentiation in portraiture or accent is
a subsequent and remedial step not taken until after the confusion
has been observed and become inconvenient. Such confusion and
contradiction would only be eliminated if sign language were
absolutely perfect as well as absolutely universal.