In the last issue of J’ui Lobypli (The Lojban community newsletter (for
which I have yet to pay… Hi Bob…)) I saw mention of an "artificial
language" called E-prime, which apparently bears the relationship of
subset to English, in that no form of "To Be" occours in it.
I have an interest in finding more out about this abstraction.
Thank You,
–Jim.
In article <18…@milton.u.washington.edu>, flana…@stat.washington.edu
(Jim Flanagan) writes:
> I saw mention of an "artificial language" called E-prime, which
> apparently bears the relationship of subset to English, in that no
> form of "To Be" occours in it.
> I have an interest in finding more out about this abstraction.
The reference you want is Bourland, D. David, Jr. A linguistic note:
write in E-prime. _General Semantics Bulletin_, 1965/1966, 32 and 33,
60-61.
Albert Ellis wrote a few books using E-prime in the 1970s. E-prime
is achieved through transformations like the following:
"I am happy" => "I feel happy"
"You are taught" => "You get taught"
"They are asses" => "They act like asses"
The third example illustrates the type of "overgeneralization" that it
is E-prime’s aim to avoid, but most of the required transformations are
as silly as the first two.
Mark Israel
I have heard the Wobble! useri…@mts.ucs.ualberta.ca