E-prime

From REWILD.info Field Guide, the free Field Guide To Rewilding

Contents 1 Introduction 1.1 The problem of the present progressive tense 1.2 Rewilding language beyond E-Prime 1.3 E-Prime Challenges 2 See also 3 Sources

[edit] Introduction

E-prime (or English-Prime) attempts to use the English language without the verb "to be." The forms of "to be" that E-Prime excludes encompass the words: "is," "are," "were," "was," "am," "be," "been," and their contractions.

People who practice E-prime believe that the verb "to be" encourages the errors of thinking known as the "is of identity", and the "is of predication". For example, "is of predication" error: "Urban Scout is lazy", rather than, "Urban Scout accomplished little today." "Is of identity" error: "Urban Scout is an anarcho-primitivist", rather than, "Urban Scout supports most of the tenets of anarcho-primitivism".

[edit] The problem of the present progressive tense

Some of the supporters of E-prime do not advocate complete conversion to English-prime, because of the loss of the progressive tense (ie, "Urban scout is accomplishing little today.") Responses to this include the difficulty of preventing the "is of present progressive" from reseeding "is" into the rest of the user's language. Some suggest that E-prime users may need to innovate alternate methods of marking the progressive tense, besides use of the "to be" helper verb.

[edit] Rewilding language beyond E-Prime

E-Prime has garnered a following among some anarcho-primitivists for its attempt at abandoning the dominating form of English made popular by Aristotle. E-primitive labels the attempt to incorporate as much non-aristotelian language as possible, borrowing and adapting structures from indigenous languages that seem to (almost?) universally have avoided the development or use of the "to be" verb.

[edit] E-Prime Challenges

What challenges do you run across when initially writing and speaking in E-prime?

Remember that one can often source the difficulty of using E-prime in the structure of the sentence itself. When you consistently identify subjects, and avoid passive voice, you will see these problems dissolve.

Those who use E-prime sometimes over-rely on the "letter" of the E-prime practice rather than the spirit. The word "find" provides a great example. Though it doesn't use "to be", to say "I find that dog interesting" labels the "dog" as "interesting", and avoids a more accurate reflection of the situation...setting aside the innate nature of the dog ("interesting", "boring", etc.), the dog itself interests you.

"I found that ride enjoyable" turns more accurately into "I enjoyed that ride".

One can also over-use the "to be" replacers "seem" or "appear". Why not turn "You seem scary" into "You scare me"?

See the E-prime Primer for more examples.

[edit] See also

• E-Primitive
• E-Prime Primer
• Template -- You can flag any article in the REWILD.info Field Guide for people to edit using e-prime by inserting the {{e-prime}} template tag.
• B-English

[edit] Sources

Wiki Authors

• Urban Scout
• WildeRix

Books

• E-prime Anthology Book

Web

• E-prime Anthology Book
• Forum Dedicated to E-prime
• Understanding E-prime
• More Understanding E-prime
• the e-PrimerTest your writing for "to be" verbs
  • Note: The e-Primer will not catch contractions of the verb "to be" that use a curved apostrophe (ex: we’re). In order for the query to identify the contraction as a possible e-prime violation, you must replace all curved apostrophes with straight apostrophes (ex: we're). You can accomplish this using MS Notepad:
    • Copy (ctrl+c) the curved apostrophe from the text
    • Open the Find/Replace dialogue box from the Edit Menu (or using ctrl+h)
    • Paste (ctrl+v) the curved apostrophe in the "find" field
    • Type a straight apostrophe in the "replace" field
    • Click the "replace all" button
    • Now the text in Notepad contains no more curved apostrophes. You can now paste it into the e-Primer and expect accurate results.

References

• none