Owen—Relations Expressed by the Passive Voice. 133 
phenomenon; and yet I am persuaded that, whatever the rela¬ 
tion found to be expressed by “Spielt,” the same relation hardly 
will be found to be expressed by “Wird gespielt.” Indeed a 
most inviting explanation for the using of the passive “Wird 
gespielt” would be that it was brought about by consciousness 
of a relation the exact reverse of that which finds expression 
in the active “Spielt.” But as we continue we shall find, I 
think, in actual practice that, in such a form as “Wird gespielt,” 
relation of that order is not contemplated. 
To find the relation actually intended in the now examined 
case of passive usage, it is necessary to perceive the terms between 
which the relation holds. Looking now for these, I am quite 
unable to discover, either in “(Es) spielt (sich)” or in “(Es) 
wird gespielt,” the slightest bona fide hint of anything which 
can effect the playing, or anything on which the playing oper¬ 
ates. The phenomenon of playing is not sensed in usual detail 
as an actor and an action—and perhaps an actee also. The 
case is quite analogous to that of raining as expressed by 
“Pluit.”* The (output energy) action and the implicated per¬ 
sonnel remain—as doubtless they at first appeared in con¬ 
sciousness—a blended whole. There being thus no recognition 
of an actor or actee, the usual relations of (1) actor-to-action, 
and (2) action-to-actee, as well as the thereto equivalent, there¬ 
from derivable relation of (3) actor-to-actee, are of necessity 
unexperienced. So too the usual reverse relations of (2) actee- 
to-action, and (l 1 ) action-to-actor, as well as the derivable rela¬ 
tion of (3) actee-to-actor, must alike be unexperienced. 
At this stage of investigation I prefer sentential specimens 
which are not even formally denatured by the presence of a 
supernumerary member—-be it subject—-be it object. “Pluit” 
will do very well for study of the active voice; and “Itur” of 
“Sic itur ad astra,” not attended by “ab omnibus” as on pp. 
51, etc., will answer for a passsive, the equivalent of “(Es) wird 
gegangen”-—the analogon of “(Es) wurde gespielt” etc. 
* Such extensions as, for instance, that of “Pluit” into “Jupiter 
pluit,” call for independent explanations of their own, which do not 
seem to me to explain e. g. the unextended “Pluit” or “Piove.” 
