Owen — Revision of Pronouns. 75 



preesional implement, I replace the phrase ^'to a degree surpass- 

 ing" by its equivalent ''surpassingly;" and in doing so I retain 

 for ^'surpassingly" the object-governing power of its parent 

 form ^'surpassing." Following then my Greek original, without 

 flinching, I develop ^^A is great surpassingly that degree to which 

 B is great." 



In further approximation to '^A is greater than B," let ^'gTeat 

 surpassingly" be replaced by the essential equivalent ''greater;" 

 and let the latter retain, as such equivalent, the governing power 

 of the former. My sentence now becomes "A is greater that de- 

 gree to which B is great." "Greater," with the meaning "great 

 surpassingly," or "great beyond," should be able to govern "that 

 degree" in the accusative, quite as well as the Latin "major" can 

 manage it in the ablative. Or, from another point of view, "is 

 greater," with the obvious value "exceeds," can take an object 

 quite as well as "schuldig ist" with the value of '^owes" can take 

 an object in German. 



To bridge the remaining gap, let "that degree" (accusative) 

 be replaced by the historically accusative "than," employed in 

 the sense of "that" (somewhat vaguely suggesting the idea of 

 degree, which is inherent in "greater"). My sentence now be- 

 comes "A is greater than to which B is great," meaning "A is 

 great to a degree surpassing that to which B is great." 'Now just 

 as "that," with possible aid from inference, may stand for "that 

 which" in "Pay me that you ow^e me," so also with no important 

 stretch of power, "that," or its inflected e^quivalent "than," m-^ay 

 stand for "that to which," especially as, after all, "to w^hich" 

 might possibly be replaced by "which" alone, the common ac- 

 cusative of degree. Accordingly I may change my sentence 

 again, obtaining "A is greater than B is great" with the value, 

 as before, of "A is great surpassingly that degree (to) which B is 

 great." By ellipsis of terms readily inferred, I finally reach the 

 conventional expression "A is greater than B." That the indi- 

 cated inference of terms is an actual fact is hinted by the French 

 "A est plus grand que B (ne) Test." Also even in English, 

 whenever the comparison is no longer between degrees of the 

 same attribute, but between degrees of different attributes, all 

 of the thought, as formulated above, is necessarily expressed. 

 Thus, "A is redder than B is blue." This last example also 



