Eprime Language

A human language, popularized by RobertAntonWilson, that consists of all of English except the "is of identity". For example, E-Prime might render

"I'm right and you're wrong" as "I've spotted what seems an error in your assertions"
"Jesus Is Lord" as "I accept Jesus as my personal lord and savior".
"She's a slut" as "She uses people as sex-objects and and I disapprove of that".
"Better Dead Than Red" as "America, love it or leave it".

Plainly E-Prime can't cure all evil, but many practitioners find it improves the flexibility of their writing because it avoids declarations and generalities. Perhaps needless to say, this page here ought to remain written in E-Prime.

But "seems" appears to me far weaker than "is"...?! In fact, removing the verb "to be" from the vocabulary does very little to remove Identity from language; it just makes the sentences more passive, complex and boring.

Moreover, how does written prose become "flexible?" What does that mean? After all, it will not change. Or do you mean to sound ambiguous? Don't we all prefer clarity? By removing words from the language to prevent "evil," much like NewSpeak, aren't you perpetrating a crime against thought and humanity?

A number of grammatical effects follow from the removal:

implicit subjects become explicit: "Thought and humanity are highly overrated" becomes "Perhaps you overrate thought and humanity"
implicit beliefs, opinions, and sources become explicit: "these words are evil" becomes "I don't care for these words at all" or "these studies have shown that the bad effects of these words include ..."
If you credit the SapirWhorfHypothesis, the writer may see angles and depths that might otherwise elude them. They may then find themselves asking questions that never occurred to them before, and the answers to these may be quite enlightening.

This last effect would be even more pronounced if we did away with definite assertions altogether. EprimeLanguage can reduce "This is not a pipe" to "This picture represents a pipe", but we ought to go further and say "This picture looks like a pipe to me. What do you think?"

Why?! -- SunirShah, playing DevilsAdvocate

You can have fun doing it. Writing with restrictions produces all kinds of interesting puzzles - poetry and crosswords offer similar pleasures.
Writing in EprimeLanguage doesn't feel natural at first, which makes you think harder about what you really mean, which makes you write more carefully.
The verb "to be" naturally produces generalizations and sloppy thinking. Other culprits, such as the generalization in the previous sentence, can make the practice an uphill battle, but the careful E-Prime writer finds their reward in the improved understanding of their audience.
The flexibility noted affects the act of writing, not the result, which often can't be readily distinguished from regular English. Communicating without "to be", forces you to select more action words, more color, and to assume less about your audience, all of which contribute to your ability to express yourself in new and unusual contexts.
It feels so nice when you stop!

Hasn't GeneralSemantics traditionally included this in its practice (and controversially, even amongst GS fans?)

The GeneralSemantics people invented it (their version removes all forms of "to be", not just the is-of-identity. They claim that, in practice, most people can't keep them apart, so they just do away with all of them). I've noted so far in my reading of "To Be Or Not" that several authors treat is-of-predication similarly to is-of-identity.

They've reprinted their early papers about it in a book called "To Be Or Not" (see below). D David Bourland Jr coined the term "E-Prime" in 1965, but he had used it in his writing since 1949. But he didn't actually invent it - someone had sent them a letter suggesting it, and the letter was lost, so they don't know who sent it. Bourland was probably the first person to use it, though.

E-prime books from ISGS:

To Be Or Not ISBN 0918970385
More E-Prime ISBN 0918970407
E-Prime III ISBN 0918970466

I've noted so far in my reading of "To Be Or Not" that the various authors consider both is-of-identity and is-of-predication problematic - and therefore avoided in EprimeLanguage. They avoid the other ises - for example, forming verb tenses ("he is working") - for pragmatic rather than philosophic ones. So far, I have not caught an author using any form of "to be" except as an example (although I have had to re-edit my own prose on this page to remove instances I did not catch).

These ideas influenced a lot of "GoldenAge?" science fiction, especially the JohnDoubyuCampbellJunior? school, and most especially AyEeVanVogt?

In the UK, the early-90s TV sitcom 'Drop The Dead Donkey' had a character, Gus (the manager or "team activator"), who spoke almost exclusively in this EprimeLanguage (I observed this; I did not see this stated on the show).

I found it hilarious to listen to his tortured and tortuous sentences, and I imagine the show's authors used this tactic for that reason. He came out with more and more slimy, management-style, politically-correct babble - instead of just saying what he meant. "Let's just put that in your mental microwave and see what goes ping"

Wordy language sounds funny. But does EprimeLanguage cause wordiness? If so, how?

I've not noted needing more words to write in EprimeLanguage. I hear active voice as less wordy than passive as well, although I do not suspect the actual number of words matters. However, as I read "To Be Or Not", I experience a very subtle sensation related to the form of the prose that I don't believe I'd even notice if I didn't look for it. -- JasonFelice

Indirect speech comes in handy when resolving conflicts, because when used, accidentally pressing someone's buttons becomes less likely than when using direct speech. However, no one tool - or way of speaking - works best in all situations.

Agreed. Sometimes I chose simple, straightforward words to describe my viewpoint. Other times, I state observations and recount actions, and let my listeners choose their own simple, straightforward words to describe my viewpoint.

At the pre-school where I volunteer we are encouraged to make objective observations rather than generalized praise. So we replace "Oh, what a lovely painting!" with "Oh, I see red and green over here and big yellow and orange swirles here!". This seems like to have similar philosophical and psychological underpinnings -- PhilGoodwin

I see large and small words on this page, arranged in long rows separated by little dotty characters. Suspect written by little dotty characters, too. -- RonJeffries

Takes one to know one pal. And do you mind? Some of us are trying to have a serious conversation here. Now if I can just figure out which ones try and which ones don't...

Related anecdote:

Dave Childs to C J Date: blah blah blah ... Do you understand me?

C J Date: Only the words.

"I'm right and you're wrong" demonstrates the is-of-predication, not that of identity.

By gum you're right. Um, that is to say, ... uh, what I mean is ... grrrah! ... I agree. Perhaps the GS bods have got it right after all. Lessee, auto-parsing ... yes, that sentence was okay ... whoops, I mean I find that sentence okay ... perhaps EprimeLanguage creates a problem of excessive reflection ...

At least two authors in "To Be Or Not" claim benefits from the additonal reflection caused by EprimeLanguage.

(Also, when translating to EprimeLanguage, I've found it useful to think "active voice" and ensure the presence of an active subject, rather than fixating on a negative - e.g. "do not use 'to be'". This will get you most of the way there without much effort.)

How far should professional writers go into adopting E-Prime? This article (http://www.asiteaboutnothing.net/w_eprime.html) examines how E-Prime can clarify (or muddy) English style.

I found :-) a tutorial at http://www.angelfire.com/nd/danscorpio/ep2.html/ that might help to deepen the discussion. -- FridemarPache

The E-Prime forum has reopened: http://forum.eprimer.net/ Come practice your E-Prime or discuss the pros and cons of E-Prime!

CategoryCommunication