[2593] in tlhIngan-Hol
-bogh question
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Mon Jan 17 18:00:51 1994
Reply-To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@klingon.East.Sun.COM>
From: shoulson@ctr.columbia.edu (Mark E. Shoulson)
To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@klingon.East.Sun.COM>
Date: Mon, 17 Jan 1994 17:56:12 -0500
In-Reply-To: Richard Kennaway's message of Mon, 17 Jan 94 16:41:09 GMT <6416.94
01171641@s5.sys.uea.ac.uk>
>From: jrk@sys.uea.ac.uk (Richard Kennaway)
>Date: Mon, 17 Jan 94 16:41:09 GMT
>Have tlhIngan-Hol members heard of the language E-prime? E-prime consists
>of English with all forms of the verb "to be" omitted. Try translating
>English text first into E-prime, before translating to Klingon, to get rid
>of the ubiquitous "be".
Yes, I've heard of E-Prime. I once described my attitude towards
pronoun-verbs as "semi E-Primish". I don't think their use qualifies as
"incorrect", but you should only use them when you *need* to.
>E-prime has other purposes, but I'll let people discover them for themselves.
Yes, it has its fun side. I don't agree with some E-Prime enthusiasts, who
ascribe most of the ills of the world to the copula, but I do find it an
entertaining and enlightening mind-game to recast sentences into E-Prime,
and found out that "to be" verb really hides. Games somewhat less fun, but
still worth trying now and then, include delteing "to have" or "to do".
~mark
