468 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 
I (standing for yon) 
I wish you to tell me believe-or-disbelieve 
the truth of 
Brown 
to be 
honest. 
Now the “Brown” and “honest” of the last diagram tally 
exactly with the “Brown” and “honest” of the interrogative sen¬ 
tence “IS Brown honest;?” So far then as cancellation of 
equivalent terms can be trusted to reveal equivalence of remain¬ 
ing terms, it appears that the remaining IS of “IS Brown 
honest ?” is equivalent to what remains of the diagram—'namely, 
“I wish you to tell me you believe etc.,” or more smoothly, “Tell 
me your believing-or-disbelieving the truth of .... to be . . . . ” 
(Conf. note, p. 436). 
As the relation expressed by “to be” is only one of many 
relations with which the interrogative sentence may deal (Conf. 
“Equals A B?,” “Killed Booth Lincoln?” etc.), therefore a 
general definition of the specially question-asking word of the af¬ 
firmative interrogation now considered, would take the form “I 
wish you to tell me your believing-or-disbelieving the truth of 
.to —— ......” On the other hand, as the negative 
interrogation “Is n’t Brown honest ?” asks for belief-orRsbelief 
in untruth, that untruth might be expected to take the place of 
truth in definition ; but as that untruth is specially expressed by 
“not,” therefore a, proper definition of the negative interroga¬ 
tion’s question-asking word will not contain that element of un¬ 
truth, which would correspond to the truth contained in the 
above definition of the question-asking word of affirmative inter¬ 
rogation. 
Passing by a number of interesting expressions even more 
densely packed with meaning,* I close examination of the spe¬ 
cially question-asking word, with a comment on 
Its rank. 
Like the interrogative “Who ?” the closely analogous inter¬ 
rogative “IS” compels me to regard as idle any effort to rank 
it as a “part of speech.” It is obviously not a part of speech, 
*E. G., in answer to the statement “Brown isn’t honest,” the follow¬ 
ing: “Nicht?”, “Vraiment?”, “So?”, “Isn’t he?” etc. 
