Owen—Interrogative Thought—Means of Its Expression. 439 
reduced, as in “Which Booth (i. e., which, member of a family) 
killed Lincoln ?” 
“Whether?” (obsolescent) merely reduces the scope of unde¬ 
termined individuality to a pair of terms—e. g. “Whether of 
the two (the older and the younger Booths) killed Lincoln ?” 
“Qualis ? 3 ’—indefinite as to' attribute—-specially deals with 
attributes of substantive ideas, being accordingly, in one of its 
simultaneous functions, ranked as an adjective. To illustrate, 
“Qualis est Julius V’ I interpret as meaning “Tell me the attri¬ 
bute—or quality—(which) Julius is characterized by.” 
In reducing this expression to the form, “Qualis est Julius?” 
I note that we might, if we chose, say “Tell me the quality 
(which) characterizes Julius,” thereby reducing thought and 
expression to already considered types. But instead of doing 
so, we adopt the thought-form expressible by “Tell me that (sub¬ 
stantive) which (adjective) Julius is.” 
This use of a single idea, as simultaneously substantive in one 
thought; and adjective in another, may be led up to by the exhi¬ 
bition of successive substantive and adjective function, which 
though little observed and less commended, is nevertheless* a. lin¬ 
guistic procedure by no means rare, and, as it seems to me, by 
no means unwarrantable'. Thus, following the statement that 
“Her dress is red” I do not hesitate to use the expression “That 
is a beautiful color,” passing without warning from; adjective 
to substantive use of an idea. The converse change, though 
more uncommon, is hardly subject rationally to* any harsher 
criticism. Accordingly, having said) that “Red is a beautiful 
color,” my linguistic instinct will not be severely shocked, if I 
get the answer “My party-dress is that.” Indeed, instead of 
two appearances of one idea in functions successively substan¬ 
tive and adjective, I may encounter the idea in, a, single appear¬ 
ance, but as simultaneously factor of two thoughts, in the first 
of which it is substantive, while adjective in the other. This 
will happen if the answer be “That’s the color my dress is,” 
meaning “That color is the color (substantive) which (adjec¬ 
tive) my dress is.” 
Simultaneous different functions are indeed a foregone con¬ 
clusion, so soon as thought develops some complexity. For, 
granted that an, idea is to serve as factor in each of two idea com¬ 
binations, it is not to be expected that it should hold in each pre¬ 
cisely the same position—that its rank in one should always tally 
