- May 2020
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www.merriam-webster.com www.merriam-webster.com
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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
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communicated through the agency of the ambassador
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www.merriam-webster.com www.merriam-webster.com
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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?
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serving as a crucial means, agent, or tool
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