Owen—Relations Expressed by the Passive Voice . 147 
of doing it. If this investigation were not goading me to look 
for every possibility of thought-formation, I suppose that only 
one expression would occur to me—the simple “Brown was 
gone-to by Jones.” 
So too again, although a given motion may no doubt bo 
sensed as either a leaving one place or a starting for another, 
had I said “I left Chicago for Yew York,” I should not say 
in the passive voice “Yew York was started for by me from. 
Chicago,” but rather, with no shift in point of view, “Chicago 
was left by me for Yew York.” I conclude accordingly that, 
while a change of view-point is in passivr ;orms of action-think¬ 
ing possible, and even eminently suitable, it does not in lin¬ 
guistic practice seem to be effected. 
That there is no genuine thought of “being-done” distinct 
from “doing”, Grammar might itself admit, if taken unawares. 
To illustrate, in the sentence “Jones was struck by Brown,” the 
subject Jones is said to “suffer” what the passive indicates. 
I ask the question: “Suffer in particular what ?”; and even 
from the devotee of Grammar I expect the answer “striking.” 
It hardly will occur to him to mention what Jones suffers as 
a “being-struck.” Being off his guard, presumably he will no 
more imagine any difference between the actions named by 
“being-struck” and “striking,” than between the actions named 
in “Herod’s slaughter of the innocents” and “slaughter of the 
innocents by Herod.” Or would he recommend “the being 
slaughtered of the innocents by Herod?” Or, prompted by a 
true-to-fact interpretation of “the murder of Lincoln” as a 
murdering him, must we renounce the expression “Lincolns 
murder” and compel ourselves to “Lincoln’s being-murdered?” 
Again, in “Jones was struck by Brown,” grammarians speak 
of Brown as the agent of the passive voice, by which I under¬ 
stand the doer of the action indicated by the passive verb. Yow 
were I to put to a grammarian this question: “What did Brown 
accomplish or perform or do?”, I hardly am prepared to be 
informed that Brown accomplished or performed or did a 
