I sooo want to play language-oriented games with you all =)
In the less-magically relevant and also a curious endeavor: language of no verb. once, in england, no verbs in our house all day. challenging, entertaining, and very circumlocutionary. surprisingly meaningful conversations, too...
I'm a big fan of the active voice; I've vaguely heard of E-prime before, and have never tried pursuing it completely. Passive voice lets us off a lot hooks. (Lois McMaster Bujold has a beautiful, comic example of this in her book Brothers in Arms, and sadly I can't find the snippet online at the moment. It entails an enlisted soldier reporting to his CO after he and his friends laid waste to a liquor shop on shore leave. It went something like: "'Words were exchanged. Weapons were drawn. Shots were fired.' Miles noted the sudden absence of any actors in all of this action."
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I sooo want to play language-oriented games with you all =)
In the less-magically relevant and also a curious endeavor: language of no verb. once, in england, no verbs in our house all day. challenging, entertaining, and very circumlocutionary. surprisingly meaningful conversations, too...
I'm a big fan of the active voice; I've vaguely heard of E-prime before, and have never tried pursuing it completely. Passive voice lets us off a lot hooks. (Lois McMaster Bujold has a beautiful, comic example of this in her book Brothers in Arms, and sadly I can't find the snippet online at the moment. It entails an enlisted soldier reporting to his CO after he and his friends laid waste to a liquor shop on shore leave. It went something like: "'Words were exchanged. Weapons were drawn. Shots were fired.' Miles noted the sudden absence of any actors in all of this action."