Owen — Revision of Pronouns. 45 



which, being part of an obitnary notice, may be taken as seri- 

 ously intended: ^'The sad ending of the beginning of a life 

 full of promise of all that is held dear in this world, was that 



of young , affectionately liked by his fellow-students and 



impressing all with whom he came in contact with his sterling 

 qualities of character, modest, unassuming and conservative, 

 dignified and imposing in appearance, yet allowing an air of con- 

 viviality and alertness to hover about him, that readily made him 

 a most companionable fellow, an acquaintance to be desired by 

 those who had not the pleasure of his friendship and hospitality, 

 which was always lavish, yet in such good taste as never to be 

 conspicuous." This example proves perhaps too much, indicat- 

 ing the possibility of avoiding sentence-rupture indefinitely. Yet 

 the reader's fatigue may be accepted as showing that bounds have 

 been overstepped. A thread indeed may be spun without a 

 break, as long as spinning mechanism and materials endure. 

 But for the convenience of both seller and buver it is cut into 

 lengths. So too the mental output, though it might indefinitely 

 continue unbroken, as a matter of linguistic fact, is delivered by 

 installments. 



* 



VI. THE BULK OF THOUGHT-INSTALLMENTS. 



(a) How Influenced. 



Of all the causes which tend to modify the length of the men- 

 tal message, the most important is no doubt the capacity of the 

 speaker. A successful ca]3tain may be a failure, if required to 

 act as general. He who has the linguistic strategy needful to 

 the command of a short sentence, may utterly lack the general- 

 diip required for a long one. The capacity of the hearer is also 

 properly consulted by the speaker. The size of a verbal army 

 is conditioned on the ability of the invaded region to support it. 

 With a child the thought-installment must be very small; with 

 an adult it may be greater ; with an adult German it may be ex- 

 tremely great. 



(h) How Measured. 



The individual thought-installment will be found to contain 

 all that this investigation must consider. Since much depends 



