Owen—Relations Expressed by the Passive Voice. Ill 
noun, tlie subject of the. passive gained a little flavor of what 
suffers (possibly because its verb was thought to name a “be¬ 
ing-done” or, say, a “being-eaten” different from an “eating,” 
see p. 1), hinting at relation of actee-to-action, which how¬ 
ever does not seem to be at all distinctly recognized. The most 
that can be said is then perhaps that there is felt to be—as 
also when the active voice is used—-a mutual belonging of the 
subject and the verb, the subject surely not however being 
thought of now as doer of the action. Grammar seems indeed 
incapable of clearly recognizing a relation formed by action, 
either in the active or the passive sentence, till it comes upon 
the “by” of passive usage, which it classes as a preposition, 
sometimes adding that “a preposition names a mere relation.” 
Though relegated thus to what was wrongly thought to be 
inferior rank, relation indicated by that preposition, so to speak, 
was strengthened. When, for instance, apples ceased to be 
conceived as “doing eating to themselves” with some assistance 
from the boys—or, say, as helping in the eating—all the bur¬ 
den of accomplishing the eating fell upon the boys; and “by”, 
instead of meaning “with the aid of”, came to mean “by the 
exclusive agency of” (see p. 21). That is, the eating and the 
boys were clearly recognized in the relation of an action to its 
actor—a relation which, however, being indicated by a prep¬ 
osition, is no part of what the passive verb expresses. 
In recapitulating, I should bear in mind that users of a given 
word or combination do not of necessity think all of them alike 
in using it, and even that the individual user’s thinkings may 
be different at different times. The slaves of Grammar and 
the devotees of language history, in saying “if you please,” 
presumably regard the “you” as object indirect, as if the 
phrase were “if to you be pleasing.” You and I however 
'probably agree that “you” is subject, and that “please” has 
come to mean “prefer” or “like,” as plainly is the case in “if 
I please,” etc. 
Thus put upon my guard, I think it probable that many 
users of the words “The boys eat my apples” think as indicated 
by “(The boys accomplish [eating) affects the apples]”—or 
