464 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts, and Letters. 
THE SPECIALTY QUESTION-ASKING WORD. 
Tlie duty of such a word I can not regard as done by inver¬ 
sion, for reasons indicated on pp. 462 and 404, or by the rise 
of voice at the sentence-end, for reasons indicated on p. 403.* 
I must regard such duty as done by what. I have called the 
interrogative IS. 
That, in the sentence “IS Brown honest ?,” the IS performs a 
duty quite analogous to that of “Who ?” in “Who killed Lincoln ?” 
—that also the difference between this I Si and the is of “Tell me 
is Brown honest” tallies closely with the difference between the 
“Who?” of a question and the “(him) who” of “Tell me (him) 
*The actual value and the operative method of the “rising inflec¬ 
tion” may be suggested here as well, perhaps, as elsewhere. Suppose 
for a moment the information-seeking sentence of p. 462 to be formed 
in the inverse order of thought, and expressed as follows: (Honest 
Brown [is) me tell]—or, more simply, “Brown is honest—tell me.” If 
now the imperative phrase (“tell me”) be dropped, it will be felt that 
the speaker has stopped before his sentence is completed. The same 
impression was no doubt at first produced, when “Tell me is Brown 
honest?” was reduced to “IS Brown honest?” Presumably some time 
elapsed before the originators of the interrogative sentence came to 
feel that what, at first, had been expressed by “Tell me,” was incorpor¬ 
ated into the meaning of “IS Brown honest?” Meantime the latter 
expression was felt to be elliptical, or incomplete. 
Now the completion of a sentence is commonly attended by a fall in 
vocal pitch. Neglecting other causes, I observe that, when a muscular 
activity is near its end, it is commonly somewhat lessened. In speak¬ 
ing, when the linguistic purpose of the moment nears fulfillment, the 
talking muscles are relaxed, including those which regulate the tension 
of the vocal chords. As the latter muscles abate their effort, the vocal 
chords themselves are slackened, and the vocal pitch descends. Pre¬ 
sumably this unintended fall of pitch, when once familiarly associated 
with completion of the sentence, was deliberately utilized to indicate 
sentential close, and exaggerated for the sake of easy recognition. 
On the other hand, until the sentence end is reached, the average 
vocal pitch is naturally maintained. Pitch-maintenance would there¬ 
fore properly become the sign, that the speaker has not finished what 
he has to say—that, even though he ceases speaking, what he has said 
is incomplete. Moreover, just as fall of pitch, the sign of completeness, 
was exaggerated downward, so also maintenance of pitch, the antago¬ 
nistic sign of incompleteness, would naturally suffer, so to speak, exag- 
