4 Matching Annotations
  1. May 2020
    1. a person or thing through which power is exerted or an end is achieved : instrumentality

      Would this be proxy agency? Or is it different?

      On the one hand, I think it's different. instrumentality seems to have a subtly different meaning from proxy agency.

      But looking at their example sentence,

      communicated through the agency of the ambassador , it is striking how similar these ideas/words/meanings are: the ambassador acted on behalf of his country (proxy agency: acted => agency; "on behalf of" => proxy); the communication occurred through his actions (= he was the means, he was instrumental in causing that communication to take place)

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agency_(sociology):

      proxy agency is when an individual acts on behalf of someone else

    2. communicated through the agency of the ambassador
    1. of, relating to, or being a grammatical case or form expressing means or agency

      I really need an example of this!

      It seems unusual that they specifically mention "a grammatical case or form". I've never seen a definition before that is anything like this one.

      How is this different from definition 1?

    2. serving as a crucial means, agent, or tool