Owen—Hybrid Parts of Speech. 243 
rightly be expressed by a verbal adjective or adverb; the situa¬ 
tion may be stated thus: only the assertive indicative and the 
unassertive subjunctive are available; the unassertive subjuno 
tive is used because the clause expressing what is feared is de¬ 
pendent —that is, lateral—therefore, void of assertion. In a 
word the only available unassertive form—that is, the substan¬ 
tive subjunctive—is used for the excellent reason that asser¬ 
tion is not intended. 
To test this statement, let it be examined whether the cir¬ 
cumstance of expressing what is feared—or say the following 
or coming after a verb of fearing—have any influence, when 
the clause expressing what is feared is not dependent. 
Obviously, if previous reasoning has been correct, it will, 
in my illustration, be impossible to pose his coming as direct 
object of “I fear”, and at the same time make the coming inde¬ 
pendent. If the latter alternative be chosen, the fearedness 
of the coming must be indicated otherwise. Accordingly, “As 
I feared, he is coming,” or “will come;” or “He is coming 
(which is what I feared).’’ 
In these expressions, “He is coming,” which is the exhibiter 
of what I feared, and which follows a verb of fearing, regu¬ 
larly and properly employs the indicative. The like is true 
in “I feared he would come; he has come” in which what is 
feared, being independently repeated, also is expressed by the 
aid of the indicative. Accordingly, the fact of expressing what 
is feared does not entail the use of the subjunctive, unless the 
expressing clause is dependent. 87 
87 Compare also the clause of result, or effect of an asserted cause. 
So long as such a clause is dependent, being in particular commonly 
employed as merely a measure of cause, it may among other possibili¬ 
ties employ the subjunctive. To illustrate, my inability to catch a dog, 
resulting from that dog’s activity, may be used to measure that activ¬ 
ity. Accordingly, “He ran fast to a degree causing me to miss him” 
or “He ran so fast that I did not catch him ,” i. e. “to the I-didn’t-catch- 
him degree of speed” or “with I-didn’t-catch-him speed.” 
When however, vice versa, cause is the mere explainer of result—as 
when the activity of a dog, which causes or results in my failure to 
catch him, is used as the mere explainer of that failure—the modal 
usage is reversed. Accordingly I properly say “I did not catch the dog 
on account of his running so fast” or “because he ran so fast”—which 
last expression, if assertive, must be regarded as secondarily assertive 
on its own account, while primarily unassertive in its fellowship with 
“I could not catch the dog” (see pages 129-134). 
