I quote Swartz: "What sort of thing is my pen's being on my desk? We are inclined to say such things as "My pen's being on my desk is true," which would suggest that my pen's being on my desk is a proposition; but we are also inclined to say such things as "My pen's being on my desk annoyed my wife who was looking for my pen in the bureau drawer," which, on one reading, would suggest that my pen's being on my desk is a physical state or an event that has causal consequences. (No proposition has causal consequences; they are not the sorts of things that do.)"