Owen—Interrogative Thought—Means of Its Expression. 429 
coin/ 7 thei suggestion, of what is named by “killed Lincoln 77 is 
enough to bring into your mind what is named by “Booth. 77 
Accordingly, if so disposed, you answer “The slayer of Lin¬ 
coln was Booth, 77 or “Booth killed Lincoln, 77 or simply “Booth. 77 
To me 1 , indeed, this name may be only a name, a “vox et praeterea 
nihil ; 77 and I may or may not be contented with it. If not, I 
can by further questions ask of you further details, which you 
in turn can give me, until you build up in my mind an idea 
which satisfies me, or until your mental supply is exhausted. 
All this I neglect, as it, seems'to me that what I contend for is 
established—namely, that the interrogative judgment will effect 
the speaker’s purpose, if only it can be revealed to the hearer. 
The feasibility of thus revealing such a judgment I hope to es¬ 
tablish under the title 
ITS EXPRESSION BY A SENTENCE. 
In effecting this my greatest difficulty will be offered by the 
void-filler—what, in diagram I indicated by an x. My mental 
image of this void-filler is, indeed, about as lean as may be. I 
have, however, considerable faith that such a void-filler there 
is (otherwise I should stultify myself by trying to induce you 
to reveal it). But that is essentially all. I cannot distinguish 
it from other thinkables. I cannot tell its qualities. In short 
it stands before my mind as substance bare of attributes, an 
idea, however, by no means rare in linguistic experience. 
The word for naming this idea, is “something/ 7 taken for the 
moment in its broadest meaning. Were I therefore to say that 
“Something killed Lincoln/ 7 the “something 77 might cover any 
one of the following: a man, an animal, an herb, a stone—an 
illness, an accident, an evil spirit—in short., essentially any idea 
that the mind may admit. “Something 77 is accordingly what is 
called indefinite, which means in the present case not merely 
that the word is unable to point your attention to one of many 
definite ideas which might be: in my mind, but that the idea 
which is actually in my mind (expressed by “something 77 ) is 
in this case substance without attribute—in other words, itself 
as indefinite as it can be. 
The indefiniteness of such an idea is usually less extreme. 
To the idea expressed by “something 77 there is ordinarily joined 
enough of attribute to exclude, for instance, both animal and 
