Owen — Revision of Pronouns. 73 



iDut between degrees of different attributes, ellipsis fails to occur. 

 Til us, *'A is as yellow as B is blue." 



In illustration of an even greater linguistic curiosity, suppose 

 tliat my acquaintance with Brow^n and my regard for him are 

 both increasing; that, further, the rate of one increase is that of 

 the other. The case is roughly that of two progTcssions, the 

 ratio of one of which I perceive to equal that of its fellows In 

 expressing this perception, much more delicate than the one I 

 last considered, I am more likely than ever to make a false start; 

 this I do by stating that ^^I like Brown increasingly" or ^'better." 

 This announcement, futile in itself, I may utilize by developing 

 it into "I like Brown better to the degree to which I see him 

 more." Of this expression I propose to show that "I like Bro^vn 

 the more, the more I see him'' is an exact equivalent. 



Putting history again to the question, I find that "the" (or ]>J 

 in Anglo-Saxon) means "by thus much," or again, as above, to 

 "a degree."^ Also in close analogy with the former case, the 

 original expression is presumably this, "I like him the more. The 

 more I see him," which the purest paraphrasing renders into 

 "I like him to a degi-ee more. To that (same degree) more I see 

 him." But the two former sentences have coalesced, producing, 

 if all elements be retained, "I like him the more the more I see 

 him." In this coalescence, also as before, an important change 

 of meaning has occurred. I may no longer paraphrase the sec- 

 ond "the" by "to that degree," but only by "to which (same) de- 

 gree." That is, "I like him the more the more I see him" is 

 equivalent to "I like him to that degree more to which degree 

 more I see him." 



Bemembering that the relative may be anticipatively used, I 

 interchange my clauses in both expressions, obtaining "The 

 more I see him, I like him the more," and "To w^hich degree 

 more I see him, I like him to that degTee more." With another 

 change in the order of the second clause I obtain the conventional 

 form "The more I see him, the more (or the better) I like 

 him. ^ 



^The difference between the former degree of intensity and ttie present de- 

 grcKi of difference may be overlooked. 



' In support of the above interpretation I may lay some stress upon its recon- 

 ciliation of the English formula to the corresponding "je, desto," "d'autant, 

 d'autant" and especially "tanto, quanto." 



