Re: "do" captures agent+subject

John Cowan aliique scripserunt:

> Henrik Theiling scripsit:
>
> > What about snow?
> >   The snow is melting.
> >   What is the snow doing?
> >
> > Would you answer: 'Well, nothing, of course.' or 'It is melting.'?
>
> The latter.
>
> > I'm asking because snow, in contrast to witches, is seldom an agent
> > so the question might work diffently on it. :-)
>

I've lost the original query, but surely we're overlooking the/an- other
possible query:  What happened to the Witch? What happened to the snow?
Clearly this views the subject as patient.

Note how odd it would be to ask: What happened to John? and receive the
answer, "He composed a song/wrote a book/killed his mother etc....."