Owen—Interrogative Thought—Means of Its Expression . 463 
Incidentally I note that the position of “Is,” as sentence-head in “Is 
Brown honest?”, tallies exactly with that of “Who?” in “Who killed 
Lincoln?” That is, the “Is” and the “Who?” which I shall claim to be, 
each one of them, a question-asking word, agree in being put in the 
initial position. 
Now it is an accepted tendency of untutored minds, to place at the 
sentence head the word for whatever idea is momentarily of dominant 
interest; and as such I rank desired ideas indicated (along with other 
ideas) by “Who?” and “Is.” Accordingly, though I for one should not 
incline to regard this tendency as actually accounting for the position 
of either “Who?” or “Is,” I nevertheless perceive that this position emi¬ 
nently satisfies that tendency; and I conclude that such position, once 
elected for the reasons indicated, is approved, confirmed, convention¬ 
alized by such a tendency. 
Tli© expression “Tell me is Brown honest,” though in actual 
use and for an interrogative purpose, does not rank as an “inter¬ 
rogative sentence'.” To he so ranked, it must still further be 
reduced in bulk. Indeed a further reduction is to be expected. 
Just as in “Tbll me who killed Lincoln,” I found that the strictly 
indefinite “who” was pitched upon to do the question-asking; so 
also in “Tell me is Brown honest” I expect that the “is” on 
account of its partial indefiniteness, will be selected to perform 
the interrogative duty. It is almost, also, a foregone conclusion 
that, just as “Who?” equipped itself for this duty, by assuming 
the meanings of all sentence-elements except those of restrictive 
value, so also the indefinite “is” should fit itself for larger func¬ 
tion, by corresponding augmentation of its meaning. That is, 
reduction is to be effected by incorporation. 
Accordingly, by a supreme effort of multiple symbolization, 
the already heavily loaded “is” shall be made to bear the further 
burden of what is meant by “Tell me”—what is meant, that is, 
by “I wish you to tell me.” In short, the indefinite “is” be¬ 
comes an interrogative IS'—a word which, in this augmented 
meaning, I find it convenient to write in capitals. 
If the reasoning followed be correct, it appears that, just as 
in “Who killed Lincoln?” the “Who?” is regarded as the spe¬ 
cially interrogative symbol, so also in “IS Brown honest ?” the 
“IS may be regarded as 
