[Cuis] The Isness (was Re: A few proposed is: additions)

[Casey Ransberger]

Below. 

On Jun 13, 2012, at 10:57 AM, "Phil (list)" <pbpublist at gmail.com> wrote:

> Casey,
> 
> On Jun 13, 2012, at 3:40 AM, Casey Ransberger wrote:
> 
>> The E-Prime crowd is cringing and turning in their graves;)
> 
> OK, you got my interest... do tell!  (I'm not familiar with E-Prime)

E-Prime is a maddeningly difficult variant of the English language which rejects all forms of the verbs meaning "to be."

This includes the word "is."

In E-Prime, the statement "To be or not to be, that is the question." is completely impossible. You end up with something like "To or not to, I perceive a question."

It's mostly useful in terms of enhancing one's point of view; the exercise of exorcizing is-ness forces one to look for some rather challenging ways of formulating arguments. It makes you think about things that we tend normally to take for granted. 

Another thing that's fun to do (and not at all related to E-Prime) is to spend a week without using words that mean "I." I, me, mine.

Sorry to be off topic!

Casey