Marcio_Osorio

How would you word it in EP?

I struggled with this: "You can get in and around the house as freely as you do in and around yours; you can help yourself to the refrigerator, watch TV for as long as you want, use our family car, and ask for money on the condition that you will pay us back."

Of course, you will make infinitely better statements, much more so than a NNSE ever thought capable of making. Thank you.

ZeroCapacity

Welcome to my home and things. Please make yourself comfortable.

Marcio_Osorio

ZeroCapacity, thank you.

ZeroCapacity

Welcome Marcio glad to help

Weetabix

How about, "My pleasure?"

Marcio_Osorio

Weetabix, it seems to me that a silent "is" hides anywhere behind "My pleasure!" Please correct me accordingly.

Weetabix

Marcio - You may have found a problem.

Unless the speaker meant, "My pleasure lies in serving you." Or accommodating you or helping you or whatever.

Karen

More importantly, the word pleasure represents a 'noun'. In the English language, a complete sentence can have two words as long as you would have a noun followed by a verb followed by a full stop (.) Example, Weetabix fell. or Marcio swam. These examples reflect complete sentences by English language standards. In the example, My pleasure, you have written a noun followed by a noun.

Weetabix

In the example, My pleasure, I've written a possessive pronoun followed by a noun.

However, one need not speak only in whole sentences or grammatically correct sentences with some words understood. Lots of informal communication consists of fragments, interjections, single nouns, etc.

"Who ate my cookie?"
"John." (noun, fragment with an understood "ate it" or "did")
"Dang!" (interjection)
"Have another."
"Thanks!" (fragment for "I thank you for this delicious treat!")
"Do you know what you should do now?"
"What?" (pronoun, fragment for "What should I do now?")
"Go!" (an entire, grammatically correct sentence of one word, a verb, with the understood subject "you")

I've always considered forums (fora?) like this to operate relatively informally, so I thought the "My pleasure" might pass.

Karen

I quite agree with you, we have become very lazy in the spoken English language and for that reason, we end up climbing the ladder of inference, assuming one thing when the speaker really means something else. E-prime written language eliminates the assumptions and reinforces clarity and conciseness. I try to focus my energies on writing in e-prime because this reinforces my walking the talk, so to speak! Imagine if the world did not depend on 'the assumption of something understood'. I had to learn the hard way living in a country that has more assumptions in their spoken language than the language spoken in the country from which I originally lived. At first, this think first before you speak feels unnatural, but if you stay with it, you find that people will respond to you more favorably and listen to you with more interest. Give it a try for 1 month and let me know what the results.

Weetabix

In what country do you live, and from what country did you originate?

Actually, I've given it a try for about the last 5 years, though I began dabbling with it around 1995 when a colleague gave me David Bourland's 1989 paper to read.

I don't know that I'd agree that e-prime leads to conciseness because it leads you to express yourself more fully, leaving less to "the assumption of something understood" as you so aptly put it.

I agree, wholeheartedly, that it enables greater clarity. That greater clarity has sometimes gotten me into trouble as I express things previously left unemphasised.

Karen

Morning Weetabix, I originated from the states, but for the past 21 years, I have lived in Karachi, Pakistan, a truly wonderful country with amazing people and culture. E-Prime has added a lot of value in my profession as a training facilitator and consultant. In response to your statement about 'conciseness', I believe e-prime leads to conciseness, because it stops others with whom I talk from imagining so much more than what I have said. Those unspoken thoughts translate to more words than what I would have written. Have a good evening.

Karen

Has everyone taken off the weekend? I have observed 0 activity on this site other than myself for the past few days. Hope all remains well for everyone. Lets keep this site alive.

Marcio_Osorio

Karen, I did a lot of lurking on the board this weekend. I did have some translation requests which I repeatedly failed to post, the majority of which may actually sound quite "scholarly." An ESLer's English gets as good as it can get.

Weetabix

I took the weekend off. I don't have access to the internet at home.

Karen

Glad to read messages from both of you. Weetabix, did you make a personal choice not to have internet at your home? Since I have a portion of my business out of my home, I could not imagine not having access to the internet at home.

Marcio, post your translation requests. I like to use them in the courses I teach. With the audience I instruct in some corporations in Pakistan, these translations become a real challenge for them.

Weetabix

I do no business from home, and I found I didn't use it enough to justify paying for it. I haven't missed it. Of course, my family and my old house keep me busy.

Karen

When did your house get built?

Weetabix

1922 or thereabouts. People in most parts of the world would not consider that old, but it passes here. It has high ceilings, lots of neat wood work, hard wood floors, leaky windows and high utility bills. I really like it, but, honestly, it takes more energetic maintenance than I have energy.

Karen

I loved the tutor style homes in Det.and Birmingham Mich. I found something very enchanting about their design. Did you restore this home?

Marcio_Osorio

Yes, Karen, I will post some more translation requests. I have quite a lot of them.

Weetabix

I work on it one project at a time, and slowly. I imagine I won't have much money available to do much until age takes away my desire to work on it.

Karen

Marcio, I look forward to the translations you plan to send to me.......

Chinmay

__________________
☆¢нιηмαу☆`·.¸. The Rising ☆ of XI A5

Marcio_Osorio

Chimnay, good one!

Karen

Chinmay, does XI A5 mean 11th grade section A5?

Marcio_Osorio