blame

[Mark Mandel]

... exist.

m a m

On Fri, Jul 16, 2010 at 4:50 PM, Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at gmail.com> wrote:

> I think, therefore I ... what??
>
> DanG
>
> On 7/16/2010 1:12 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society<ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Jonathan Lighter<wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      Re: blame (was: Prescriptivism and the cinema)
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Jesse informed me of this eccentricity many years ago.  The movement was
> > called "e-prime" (for "English Prime," of course).  The name is chosen
> > to suggest that the perpetrator knows math as well as English.
> >
> > AFAIK, no one has successfully achieved the e-prime state in extended
> > utterance. But it remains a manic ideal for some.  God knows why.
> >
> > Am too lazy to Google, but I bet there's lots to see.
> >
> > JL
> >
> > On Fri, Jul 16, 2010 at 11:49 AM, Charles C Doyle<cdoyle at uga.edu>
>  wrote:
> >
> >
> >> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >> -----------------------
> >> Sender:       American Dialect Society<ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >> Poster:       Charles C Doyle<cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
> >> Subject:      Re: blame (was: Prescriptivism and the cinema)
> >>
> >>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>
> >> Regarding the way prescriptions and proscriptions "contaminate"
> seemingly
> >> related usages (and if I've mentioned this before, I apologize):
> >>
> >> We all know that good writers supposedly shun copulas (or passive
> >> constructions), preferring the vigorous, virile active voice. Well, my
> son
> >> in high school had an English teacher who banned ALL uses of the verb
> "be,"
> >> including its use as an auxillary. "I am writing a message" would have
> to
> >> become "I write a message"--not quite English!
> >>
> >> --Charlie
> >>
>

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