Quote:
Originally Posted by Karen
Good morning Iain. Ok, lets look at the 'nice'. When someone says, "Karen, I love the way you teach," I never take that statement as a compliment.
|
I would take it as a compliment, but not as a
helpful compliment.
Quote:
|
Why? It tells me nothing. Now if one of my participants said, 'Karen, I love how you project your voice, or your explanations on how to write objectives came across as very clear to the whole audience, or I loved the humor you injected when you gave an example of action responses, then I would take that as a compliment.
|
I agree, but I don't understand how the abovewritten example shows a contrast between E-Prime, and Standard English. It just shows a contrast between a vague compliment and a more detailed compliment. In neither example do you use the form "to
be".
Quote:
|
An e-prime statement does not just 'rid' itself of the 'to be' verbs, it gives clarity on the whole subject.
|
I agree, and I exemplified this point by showing how "I
am Scottish"
is less clear than "My house stands in Scotland".
However, a person who
wants to obfuscate can find a way to do so simply by using the word "Scottish", even
without "to
be". When one says "
Scottish people all eat porridge", this still raises all the same questions as "
I am Scottish" (see my two lists).
Quote:
|
Going back to your 'nice'. Add to your statement so that others won't get confused as to what you specifically mean when you say 'nice'. This will automatically eliminate all the other sentences that others think.
|
I can't do that because I didn't mean anything by it -- I just chose an adjective at random.
My point
was that although the problematic
"I am Scottish" translates into the un-problematic E-prime "
My house stands in Scotland", we can
also translate it into the
problematic E-Prime "I have Scottishness".
In otherwords, a willful obfuscater can easily get around the restrictions put in place by E-Prime.
~Iain