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Callz at 20:11, 29 December 2005

2005-12-29T20:11:13Z

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Callz at 20:03, 29 December 2005

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:''For the interactive-experiment design software, see [[E-Prime (software)]]''
'''E-Prime''', short for '''English Prime''', refers to a modification of the [[English language]] that prohibits the use of the [[verb]] "[[Copula|to be]]" in all its forms.

== History ==
One of Korzybski's students, D. David Bourland, Jr. proposed E-prime as an addition to [[Alfred Korzybski]]'s [[general semantics]] some years after Korzybski's [[death]] in [[1950]]. Bourland coined the term in an [[essay]] in [[1965]] entitled ''A Linguistic Note: Writing in E-Prime'' (originally published in the ''General Semantics Bulletin''). It quickly became controversial within general semantics, partly because sometimes practioners of General Semantics saw Bourland as attacking the verb 'to be' as such, and not just certain usages — one [[cartoon]] in an E-Prime book compared the verb with [[excrement]].

Korzybski had found two forms of the verb 'to be' - the 'is' of identity and the 'is' of predication - to have structural problems. For example, the sentence "The coat is red" has no observer, but "We see the coat as red" (here "we" indicates observers) appears more correct as to the facts about light waves and colour as determined by [[modern science]], i.e., [[colour]] results from a reaction in the [[human brain]]. Korzybski advocated raising one's awareness of structural issues generally through training in general semantics.

== The different functions of 'to be' ==
In use, the verb 'to be' has several distinct functions:

* '''Identity''', of the form "''noun'' be ''noun''" ''[The cat is an animal]''
* '''Predication''', of the form "''noun'' be ''adjective''" ''[The cat is furry]''
* '''Auxiliary''', of the form "''noun'' be ''verb''" ''[The cat is sleeping]''; ''[The cat is bitten by the dog]''
* '''Existence''', of the form "''noun'' be" ''[There is a cat]''
* '''Location''', of the form "''noun'' be ''place''" ''[The cat is on the mat]''

Bourland sees specifically the "identity" and "predication" functions as pernicious, but advocates eliminating all forms for the sake of simplicity. In the case of the "existence" form (and less [[idiomatic]]ally, the "location" form), one can simply substitute the verb "exists".

== Criticism ==

Note that E-Prime forces a writer to choose verbs and meanings carefully: the elimination of "to be" implicitly eliminates the [[passive voice]] and [[Imperfective aspect|progressive aspect]]. Since many stylists argue that these occur too frequently in sloppy English writing, this constraint alone accounts for much of the appeal of E-Prime to some of its advocates. Of course it may also generate difficulties for some writers as they learn to use E-Prime.

E-Prime's advocates may also assert that its use leads to a less dogmatic style of [[language]] that reduces the possibility for misunderstanding and for [[conflict]]. Detractors might observe that some languages already treat equivalents of the verb "to be" very differently without giving any obvious advantages to their speakers. For instance, [[Arabic language|Arabic]], like [[Russian language|Russian]], already lacks a verb form of "to be" or "is" in the present tense. If one wanted to assert, in Arabic, that "an apple is red", one would not literally say "the apple looks red", but "the apple red". That is, speakers can communicate the verb form of "to be" - and/or its E-Prime equivalents - with their semantic advantages and disadvantages, even without the existence of the word itself (though without resolving the ambiguities that E-Prime seeks to alleviate). Similarly, the [[Ainu language]] consistently does not distinguish between "be" and "become"; thus ''ne'' means both "be" and "become", and ''pirka'' means "good", "be good", and "become good" equally. Many languages — for instance [[Japanese language|Japanese]], [[Spanish language|Spanish]], and [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] — already distinguish "existence"/"location" from "identity"/"predication".

No compatibility exists between E-Prime and [[Charles Kay Ogden]]'s [[Basic English]] because Basic English has a closed set of verbs - excluding verbs such as "become", "remain", and "equal" that E-Prime uses to replace or precisify states of "being". Changes such as those proposed for E-Prime also might eliminate enough ways to express [[grammatical aspect|aspect]] in [[African American Vernacular English]] to prove unworkable if applied indiscriminately to such language.

==Discouraged forms==

''To be'' falls in the set of [[irregular verb]]s in English; some individuals, especially those have learned English as a second language, may have difficulty recognizing all its forms. In addition, speakers of [[colloquial]] English frequently [[Contraction (linguistics)|contract]] ''to be'' after [[pronoun]]s or before the word ''[[Negation#Grammar|not]]''. E-Prime would prohibit the following words as forms of ''to be'':

*''be''
*''being''
*''been''
*''am''
*''is''; ''isn't''
*''are''; ''aren't''
*''was''; ''wasn't''
*''were''; ''weren't''
*[[Contraction (linguistics)|Contractions]] formed from a [[pronoun]] and a [[Grammatical conjugation|conjugation]] of ''to be'':
**''I'm''
**''you're''; ''we're''; ''they're''
**''he's''; ''she's''; ''it's'' (when derived from ''it is'')
*E-Prime likewise prohibits contractions of ''to be'' found in nonstandard [[dialect]]s of English, such as the following:
**''[[ain't]]''
**''[[hain't]]'' (when derived from ''ain't'' rather than ''haven't'')

===Allowed words===

E-prime does not prohibit the following words, because they do not derive from forms of ''to be''. Some of these serve similar grammatical functions (see [[auxiliary verb]]s).
*''become''
*''has''; ''have''
*''I've''; ''you've''
*''do''; ''does''; ''doing''; ''did''
*''can''; ''could''
*''will''; ''would''
*''shall''; ''should''
*''ought''

===Allowed words with prohibited homophones or homographs===

The following words may either look ([[homograph]]) or sound ([[homophone]]) like a form of the word ''to be'', but they do not have the same meaning.

*''its'', the [[possessive case]] of the singular [[gender-neutral pronoun]]
*''it's'' and more generally ''â€™s'' when derived from 'has'
*''hain't'' (in nonstandard dialects when derived from ''haven't'' rather than ''ain't'')
*[[Noun]]s that sound like forms of the verb ''to be'':
**''[[bee]]'', meaning an insect or [[spelling bee|a contest]]
**''[[being]]'' when used as a noun, as in [[Virginia Woolf]]'s statement, "The artist after all is a solitary ''being''"
**''[[B]]'', ''[[M]]'', and ''[[R]]'', names of the letters (although ''M'' is pronounced distinctly from ''am'' in many [[dialect]]s)

==Examples==

{| border="0" style="padding:8px; border: solid silver 1px"
!E-Prime
!Standard English
|-
|colspan="2"|
----
|-
|| These short examples illustrate some of the ways to modify standard English writing to use E-Prime.
|| These are some short examples to illustrate some of the ways that standard English writing can be modified to use E-Prime.
|-
|colspan="2"|
----
|-
|| Roses look red; Violets look blue. Honey pleases me, And so do you.
|| [[Roses are red]]; Violets are blue. Honey is sweet, And so are you.
|-
|colspan="2"|
----
|-
|| Alice began to tire of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister read, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, 'and what use does a book have,' thought Alice 'without pictures or conversation?'
:—modified from [[Lewis Carroll]]'s ''[[Alice's Adventures in Wonderland]]''
|| Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, 'and what is the use of a book,' thought Alice 'without pictures or conversation?'
:—[[Lewis Carroll]]'s ''[[Alice's Adventures in Wonderland]]''
|}

==See also==
*[[Grammatical voice]]
*[[Sapir-Whorf hypothesis]]

==External links==
*[http://www.e-prime.com E-Prime] - Practice your E-Prime in an online discussion forum
*[http://www.nobeliefs.com/eprime.htm Toward understanding E-prime]
*[http://web.archive.org/web/20041012070736/http://objectz.com/columnists/eandd/ Working with E-Prime] - detailed article
*[http://www.xenodochy.org/gs/e-prime.html E-prime: The Spirit and the Letter, by Ralph E. Kenyon Jr.]
*[http://learn-gs.org/library/elaine-eprime.htm Discovering E-Prime, by Elaine C. Johnson]
*[http://www.hilgart.org/papers_html/091S196.B07.html E-Prime and Linguistic Revision, by C. A. Hilgartner]
*[http://learn-gs.org/library/etc/49-2-french.pdf The Top Ten Arguments Against E-Prime (PDF)] - by James D. French, arguing for moderation in use of ''to be'' rather than abstinence

[[Category:Forms of English]]
[[Category:Semantics]]
[[simple:E Prime]]

@@ Line 63: / Line 63: @@
 ..When did he get elected? Nov 1st 2001
-..Who elected him? Blackboxes, punch counters
+..Who elected him? Blackboxes, punch counters, supreem court
 New Statement:

@@ Line 53: / Line 53: @@
 Statement:
-..'Bill Clinton is President of the USA'
+..'Bush is President of the USA'
 Comments/Questions:
@@ Line 59: / Line 59: @@
 ..Not forever.
-..How did he get there? Process of election.
+..How did he get there? Process of election marred in corruption.
-..When did he get elected?
+..When did he get elected? Nov 1st 2001
-..Who elected him?
+..Who elected him? Blackboxes, punch counters
 New Statement:
-..'The people of the USA ELECTED Bill Clinton President for four years in...'
+..'The people of the USA didn't ELECT Bush President for four years in...'
-The process word 'elected' gets rid of the 'is' and tells us what actually went on, tells us about the PROCESS that took/continues to take place. By using that word, we also get to refer to the doer in the process - i.e. 'The people of the USA,' played a vital part. Clinton no longer 'is' President - as if cast in stone eternally - once we discover the underlying process variables.
+The process word 'elected' gets rid of the 'is' and tells us what actually went on, tells us about the PROCESS that took/continues to take place. By using that word, we also get to refer to the doer in the process - i.e. 'The people of the USA,' played a vital part. Bush no longer 'is' President - as if cast in stone eternally - once we discover the underlying process variables.
 Statement:

E-Prime - Revision history

66.167.129.181 at 22:31, 23 January 2006

Callz at 20:11, 29 December 2005

Callz at 20:04, 29 December 2005

Callz at 20:03, 29 December 2005