Owen—Relations Expressed by the Passive Voice. 115 
Again, the “agreement” of the subject and the verb in num¬ 
ber and in person, further so distracts attention of grammarians 
from the mental juxtaposing of the subject and the object, that 
the relation which obtains between the two is generally alto¬ 
gether overlooked. For instance, though “A equals B” is 
surely often used as if in answer to the question “What rela¬ 
tion holds between the bulk of A and that of B ?” that sentence 
is interpreted as if it always were a statement of the bulk of A 
in terms of that of B—as answer to “How big is A 
This attention to “agreement” ought to lead to a distinct per¬ 
ception of the subject and the verb as in the obvious relation of 
an actor to (his own particular) action—that one in which he 
is implicated—not some other action. But in fact the atten¬ 
tion finds the subject and the verb to be in such relation only 
as is hinted by the declaration that the subject “is the subject 
of a particular verb”—a statement quite as valid when the pas¬ 
sive voice is used, and with the active when there is no inti¬ 
mation of an actor or an action—a statement which accordingly 
can not exclusively or certainly suggest relation of an actor to 
his action—a statement which is but a clumsy cart-before-the- 
horse announcement of what the “agreement” really tries to 
tell us, namely that the verb “is the verb of a particular sub¬ 
ject.”* 
If entirely consistent, Grammar further would announce for 
instance in “The boys eat my apples” that, not only “boys” 
is subject of the verb, but also that the verb is verb of the ob¬ 
ject “apples.” That is, we should, though vaguely, be in¬ 
structed in relations that obtain in turn between the boys and 
eating, and between the eating and the apples. Recognition of 
essentially this sort indeed is necessary to the unity of total 
thought, for if we do not recognize relation (eating-formed) be¬ 
tween the boys and apples, but begin with boys in a relation 
with the eating, a relation must be further recognized between 
the eating and the apples ; for the apples otherwise would be 
irrelevant. 
* It seems to be forgotten that my subject may be such, although 
I even have not yet determined what shall be my predicate. 
