”General Semantics (or GS) can be referred to as a general system of evaluation and awareness. It provides a systematic methodology to understand how you relate to the world around you, how you react to this world, how you react to your reactions, and how you may adjust your behavior accordingly.As language provides the means and the environment by which this evaluative process occurs, much of general semantics deals with studying the effects of language (and other symbol systems) on our behavior, and vice-versa.General Semantics deals with the study of how we perceive, construct, evaluate, and communicate our life experiences. It can be considered an interdisciplinary study in that when you study general semantics, you integrate knowledge from many academic fields - not just language and communication studies, but also psychology, physics, chemistry, mathematics, physiology, sociology, anthropology, etc.“”E-Prime (short for English-Prime) is a modified form of the English language, users of which avoid any forms of the verb to be: "be", "is", "am", "are", "was", "were", "been" and "being" (and their contractions 'm, 's, and 're). Sentences composed in E-Prime seldom contain the passive voice, which in turn may impel writers or speakers to envisage things differently than they might otherwise (compare the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis). By eliminating most uses of the passive voice, E-Prime encourages writers and speakers to make explicit the agent of a statement,[1] possibly making the written text easier to read and understand.Some people use E-Prime as a mental discipline to filter speech and translate the speech of others.[2] For example, the sentence "the movie was good", translated into E-Prime, could become "I liked the movie". The translation communicates subjective experience rather than judgment. In this example, using E-Prime makes it harder for the writer or reader to confuse a statement of opinion with a statement of fact.“
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I have a book called to “be or not: an e-prime Anthology”. I really enjoyed reading it. Robert Anton Wilson turned me onto it. He claims that it will inspire a way of thinking similar to zen mind states.
I had a college writing course where the professor encouraged us to eliminate all forms of the verb "to be" from our writing. I had never thought of using language in that way and I really liked the idea, and I found that my writing contained more active and descriptive language. I have since aimed to eliminate them from all writing, even email (sometimes I is lazy though).
After that I heard of E-Prime on an NPR show but have only experimented with it for fun. I like the idea because it brings more consciousness to speech. When I meet or speak with anyone who uses cliche or common phrases to describe (anything)...ex. "that's the way the cookie crumbles"...I throw up in my mouth a little.
I support anything that provides, allows or gives us greater consciousness over how we communicate.
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After that I heard of E-Prime on an NPR show but have only experimented with it for fun. I like the idea because it brings more consciousness to speech. When I meet or speak with anyone who uses cliche or common phrases to describe (anything)...ex. "that's the way the cookie crumbles"...I throw up in my mouth a little.
I support anything that provides, allows or gives us greater consciousness over how we communicate.