Owen—Hybrid Parts of Speech. 199 
'“insects,” any more than is “Harris studied.” Unless then 
“destroy” be unassertive, the illustration is irrelevant. 60 
Languages which freely use the subjunctive are more alert 
in distinguishing assertion and non-assertion, than languages 
which use that mode but little. The former therefore offer 
better illustraton of the case in hand. Tor instance, in French, 
asserting that “I am looking for a servant,” if (u) I wish with¬ 
out sentential breach to continue with a second assertion (of 
that servant’s faithfulness), I use a relative clause containing 
the indicative. But if ( b ) I merely wish by means of a rela¬ 
tive clause to restrict attention to a servant of a particular 
type (which I may or may not further pose as hoped for, 
wished or intended by me), I put the verb of such a relative 
clause in the subjunctive. Accordingly, (a) “I am looking 
for a servant (actually known by me) who is faithful;” 61 (b) 
“I am looking for a servant (the creature of my fancy) who 
be faithful.” 62 
While in English the use of “be” in the second expression 
is doubtless quite unusual, I doubt not that the users of our 
language who have learned in other languages a keen percep¬ 
tion of the difference between assertion and non-assertion, are 
well aware that, in admitting “is” instead of “be,” they by 
no means intend assertion. 
As for the undeveloped perception of the unpracticed mind, 
it doubtless parallels the mental unawareness of him who 
synonymizes “shall’ and “will,” or him who all the days of 
his life makes use of “time” for either “Zeit” or “Mai” 
(“temps” or “fois”), with never an adequate recognition of 
the difference in his mental operations. 
Banking then the verb of the relative clause in my illustra¬ 
tion (“Harris studied insects which destroy plants”) as un¬ 
assertive, I cannot see that “destroy plants” is any more able 
to stand alone upon its individual merits than the “destroying 
80 The possible successive assertive and unassertive values of “de¬ 
stroy” (see pp. 129-133) do not need to be discussed again. 
61 Je cherche un domestique qui est fidele. 
62 Je cherche un domestique qui soit fidele. 
