Quote:
Originally Posted by Karen
Iain, do you have Scottish lineage or Scottish nationality? The two have very different meanings and you have to have clarity on what you mean when you say I am Scottish? |
That's just my point -- I
am citing "I
am Scottish" as an ambiguous statement. The statement doesn't come from me. The truth about me
is besides the point.
If one forbids me from using "be", I could say "I have Scottishness", and that would have the same vagueness.
To clarify: I see
I have Scottishness as a lazy E-Prime substitute for
I am Scottish and neither better than the other.
Quote:
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I believe we get lazy in thought because we don't exert our minds to forced closure. If people would rid themselves of 'to be' verbs, we would become clearer and face less stress when we try to understand one another.
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At first, yes. But then we'd lazily start using "I have Scottishness" which creates the same stress.
Maybe we ought to avoid also sentences that
imply the verb "to
be", without saying it.
~Iain