36 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts^ and Letters. 



of the retrospective type; it may also be anticipative. To illustrate, 

 "Wishing to put before you the proposition that France will fight, and 

 wishing further to put it that people say this, I am likely to begin with 

 the expression "People say". At this point I find it convenient to in- 

 troduce a provisional object, namely "that". This object has the ad- 

 vantage of being accustomed to objective function, whereas the ex- 

 pression "France will fight", though my actual object, Is accustomed to 

 rank as a sentence, and does not readily resign itself to being the mere 

 object of another sentence. The word "that" is no doubt inadequate, 

 because indefinite; but this very indefiniteness is so extreme as to give 

 sufficient assurance that it does not express all that I intend. The sen- 

 tence "They say that" is surely far from worth the effort of expression. 

 You safely argue that more is yet to follow. You accept my "that" as 

 a quasi promise of further and more definite expression. In other 

 words you recognize my "that" as a mere prelude, as an anticipative 

 proxy. And when I continue with "France will fight", you readily ac- 

 cept these words as the proxy's principal — as the definite expression, 

 promised by "that". 



Such I mean is the original and clearer conception of "that," as in- 

 dicated by its history in several languages. In time the word has been 

 largely emptied of meaning and has sunk to the level of a sign that the 

 following thought is merely a substantive factor of another thought. 

 Occasionally in Spanish, the equivalent "que," having many other pos- 

 sible values, is reinforced by the article. Such usage renders obvious 

 a structural displacement of "that", which has passed from an earlier 

 full membership of "People say that" into ancillary membership of 

 "that France will fight". This change too is further accompanied by 

 change in punctuation. The sentence, as originally constructed, would 

 be written "They say that — France will fight". As now construed it is 

 written, w^hen at all protracted, "They say, that France will fight". 



In the present illustration the anticipative "that" is last term or ob- 

 ject. In "That France will fight is commonly believed" it is subject. 

 In "They do evil that good may follow" it is indirect object or say a 

 dative of purpose. In "I am sorry that he is ill", it may be regarded 

 as ablative of cause. It is in all cases the result of mere neglect, that 

 the anticipative "that" is uninflected. 



When the original anticipative value and the full structural signifi- 

 cance of "that" have once been forgotten, the purpose of its introduc- 

 tion naturally seems to be unfulfilled, and therefore may be carried 

 out a second time. Thus primarily one would naturally write "That — 

 (namely) France will fight — is generally believed" or "That is gen- 

 erally believed — (namely) France will fight" or even "Is generally be- 

 lieved that — (namely) France vdll fight." But so soon as such inter- 

 pretation of the last is reached, as may be expressed, with change of 

 punctuation, by "Is generally believed, that France will fight;" that is. 



