ncannino

I suppose probably the most difficult thing I've found with eprime so far has to do with defining things. In math, one can say "x equals n," but in language the difficulty comes from saying obscure substitutes like "black equals a color."

How would you say "black is a color"? The best I've come up with so far equals (heh) "black refers to a color."

Square

Language doesn't equal math, and "is" means something totally different than "equals". As you may realise, it contains hundreds of various ambigous definitions, so the comparision hardly applies. Black doesn't equal color either, it seems that a better term that may apply would correspond to mathematical "belongs to" (as in: n belongs to R - real numbers).

My proposition would include "black belongs to the group of colors", though what you said sounds good, too.

ncannino

I also have a huge difficulty when dealing with the telephone. How do you identify yourself? I think for dealing with names, I might as well forget about eprime. "My mother named me Nicholas. May I speak with 'so and so'"?

Inch

I would question the usefullness of that statement. Obviously you will only use it when talking to someone who doesn't know the definition of black. Why not tell them what the colour it refers to as well?

So I will add to the list "We call this color black."

ncannino

You would? Ask some people what they think. They might not call black a color.

Inch

There exists a set of people that call black a colour. I belong to this set. :P

Similar to your name problem. How would one go about announcing the day?

I want to say "Today is Tuesday" but I struggle to think of anything that sounds reasonable.

"Today seems like a Tuesday."
"I think of today as Tuesday."
"I currently exist in Tuesday"

Umm, need I continue?

Square

As for the phone... "Nicholas here."

Wildway

I say, "Today falls on a Tuesday", and I use that for any date, i.e. "When [copula] your Birthday?" ---> "My birthday falls on...".

Michael

Names... I hate them... (on philosophical grounds, not due to difficulties in translating statements which use names).

Anyway; "Call me Nicholas"; "I'm known as Nicholas"; "Nicholas, here".

Names... I still hate them...

"Tuesday, today."

I hate birthdays as well...

"I do not have a(nother) birthday".

Wildway

Or how bout, "I will not live to see another birthday. Thanks for reminding me."

KateGladstone

Re:

"How would you say 'black is a color'? The best I've come up with so far equals (heh) 'black refers to a color.' "

Try it this way:
"Black" names a color.

KateGladstone

... or even: "The word 'black' signifies a color" ... better yet, make it specific: "The word 'black' stands for the color of coal."

Karen

When I look at a piece of coal, I see it as a color that I call black.
The word black represents a color.