From: M. E. Smith (mesmith@rocketmail.com)
Date: Mon Oct 11 1999 - 11:48:59 MDT
Yes, I found the article interesting, but it suffers
from the same flaw as many other articles about
E-prime: it does not make clear the distinction
between the "is of identity" and the "is of
existance".
The English verb "to be" has two meanings, "to be
identicle to" and "to exist". IT IS ONLY THE FORMER
THAT E-PRIME WAS ORIGINALLY MEANT TO ABOLISH.
Since the idea was invented, sploppy thinking has
allowed the idea of "E-prime" to change, so that some
people will even say that the sentence:
"I am in Alabama"
which uses the "to exist" sense of the verb "to be",
must be replaced by something like:
"My body currently exists within the borders of the
geographical entity known as Alabama."
This foolishness makes E-prime seem silly to most
people.
If it has already been pointed out somewhere else on
the list that E-prime is only about abolishing the "is
of identity", not the "is of existence", I apologize
for wasting bandwidth.
Another point: There already exist languages without a
verb equivalent to the "is of identity" (certain
Brazilian rainforest tribes, "Klingon", etc.) and
cultures which use such languages still manage to have
a lot of fuzzy thinking and superstitions, so nobody
should think that E-prime would be a complete antidote
to that sort of thing. For example, this post uses
E-prime, and I'm sure some of you could dispute at
least some of what I'm saying.
A last point: Any living language changes. English
especially has prospered by having no absolute
authorities to prevent new words from being used. I
suspect that if the "is of identity" did not exist in
any real modern culture (which excludes "Klingon"), it
would be invented in a single generation. This renders
E-prime mainly a useful philisophical idea, not a
realistic goal.
=====
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M. E. Smith
mesmith@rocketmail.com
http://members.home.net/mesmith/
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