Owen■—Relations Expressed by the Passive Voice. 139 
How, for “acquires,” I cannot think of any opposite, except 
the unreliable “invests” and the coined “bequalify.” As both 
of these are quite unsatisfactory, I take as model “This mortal 
shall put on immortality,” and substitute for “acquires” the 
figurative quasi-synonym “puts on.” Accordingly, “Raining 
puts on reality”—in the aoristic sense of “Raining occurs,” and 
not in that of “Raining is occurring” or “occurs habitually.” 
Of “puts on,” an opposite is “clothes,” and this I substitute 
in (3). Accordingly, “Reality clothes raining.” Of thought 
expressed by this, the corresponding passive form-—obtained by 
interchange of terms, and the reversal of relation—is “Raining 
is clothed by reality;” and this—with aoristic value also—-I 
submit as full interpretation of the coined passive “Pluitur,” 
available (with change of subject) for the actual passive verbs 
which are employed with no subject or a merely formal subject* 
How far the passive in Case IV be held to have resisted the 
arrest of development, suggested in examination of Case I, de¬ 
pends upon the point of view. If “Pluitur” means “Raining 
is clothed by reality,” expressing two relations—that of actee 
to action (sensed between the substantive “Raining” and the 
act of clothing) and that of action to its actor (sensed between 
the action and “reality”)—its development has been arrested. 
These two relations may however readily he fused, developing 
the one relation of actee to actor. As the exhibitor of this re¬ 
lation, “Pluitur” exemplifies the possible completely developed 
passive voice suggested on pp. 28-33, etc.—but with this 
difference, that it is not the symbol of asserted action-caused 
relation only, but of such relation and its terms—of an entire 
judgment. 
“Pluitur” indeed—as not an ordinary word, but a one-word 
passive sentence—is “hors de concours.” There is little satis¬ 
faction in comparing it with tantamount or parallel expressions, 
* One only, of the many whose opinions I’ve consulted, thinks of 
“Pluitur” as but a synonym—a merely formal variant—of “Pluit.” 
But as he, in recognizing thought, exhibits regularly a phenomenal 
perception of its substance, his indifference to the passive mandate to 
remodel form of thought, establishes but little probability that other 
language-users commonly refuse obedience. 
