40 Wisconsiji Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 



its predecessors. To use initiative words for old ideas is, then,, 

 to thwart expectation, I shonkl do better to sav, ^^I have been 

 talking with BrowTi. I learn that lie is ill." When old ideaSy 

 then, are intended, their reception is aided by the use of rein- 

 statives, words, that is, which announce the old as snch. The' 

 gain attending the nse of idea-repeaters is accordingly this : the 

 speaker is able to announce each idea in its turn as okl or new, 

 thereby reducing the field in which the hearer is to seek the 

 idea. ^ 



The use of idea-forerunners may aid the receiver of thought- 

 elements in their right assemblage. This advantage, already in- 

 timated on p. 36, may be illustrated more completely as follows r 

 ^Trance w^ill fic'ht is thous^ht bv manv." In this sentence you 

 are embarrassed bv difficult v in determining what my subiect 

 is, until mv sentence has been half concluded. This embarrass- 

 ment may be relieved by a prospective. Availing myself of its- 

 aid, I tell you, "It is thought by many France will fight." "It" 

 is obviously not my actual subject, but rather a promise of a 

 subject. Accepting it as such, you realize that what immedi- 

 ately follows must be what I have to say of my subject; and 

 when that saying is ended, you recognize the remainder as my 

 actual subject. 



To their inferior prestige, whether used as idea-repeaters 

 or as forerunners, the vicarious v/ords exhibit physical con- 

 formity, being weak in bodily presence. By this I mean that 

 they are comparatively small and inconspicuous, thereby making 

 a double practical gain. In "Montgomery says his brother-in- 

 law has sold him his horse," the shortness of the proxies brings 

 me on the one hand quicklv to mv sentence end and on the other 

 somewhat beguiles your sense of repetition. This double gain 

 is more conspicuous, if the above sentence be compared with the 

 followino;: "Monta'omerv savs Monta'omerv's brother-in-law 

 has sold Montgomery Montgomery's brother-in-law's horse." 



In the discussion of vicarious usage I have rejected current phraseol- 

 ogy, because it tends to offer uncertain and even deceptive suggestions. 

 Grammar, for instance, calls a pronoun's principal its "antecedent."" 



^This advantage may be compared to that afforded, in the game of twenty 

 questions, by the Initial establishment of the unknown object as animal, vege- 

 table or mineral. 



