

Challenge:  Expression without use of the verb "to be" - dojo
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/jan/16/e-prime-change-your-life

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foldr
Like most philosophies of this sort, the ideas are trivially self-refuting.
For example, consider the following from the article:

>"Our judgments can only be proba­bi­listic," wrote Allen Walker Read, a
Korzybski follower. "Therefore we would do well to avoid finalistic,
absolutistic terms. Can we ever find 'perfection' or 'certainty' or 'truth'?
No! Then let us stop using such words in our formulations."

This basically amounts to saying that it's certainly true that we can never be
certain that anything is true. In any case, avoiding the use of "be" has no
real effect on the subjective/objective tone of your language. You can write
subjective-sounding sentences using be ("It is in my view a bad idea") and you
can express objective-sounding sentences without it ("E-prime sucks"). If for
some reason you're concerned not to make objective claims, then don't make
objective claims. There aren't any special grammatical tricks required.

I don't know how ideas as bad as this one ever gain any traction. (But then I
guess E-Prime never really did.)

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rlpb
What about "is not"?

