The word “is” in all its forms. It encourages category thinking in lieu of focussing on the actual behavior or properties that make it meaningful to apply. Example: “is a clone really you?” Trying to even say that without using “is” poses a challenge. I believe it should be treated the same as goto: occasionally useful but usually a warning sign.
So some, like Lycophron, were led to omit ‘is’, others to change the mode of expression and say ‘the man has been whitened’ instead of ‘is white’, and ‘walks’ instead of ‘is walking’, for fear that if they added the word ‘is’ they should be making the one to be many. -Aristotle, Physics 1.2
ETA: I don’t mean this as either criticism or support, I just thought it might be interesting to point out that the frustration with ‘is’ has a long history.
The word “is” in all its forms. It encourages category thinking in lieu of focussing on the actual behavior or properties that make it meaningful to apply. Example: “is a clone really you?” Trying to even say that without using “is” poses a challenge. I believe it should be treated the same as goto: occasionally useful but usually a warning sign.
ETA: I don’t mean this as either criticism or support, I just thought it might be interesting to point out that the frustration with ‘is’ has a long history.
E-Prime.
We could support speaking this way on LW by making a “spellchecker” that would underline all the forbidden words.
In that sentence, I find the words “clone”, “really” and “you” to be as problematic as “is”.
You’re perfectly comfortable with the indefinite article?
No, but I am much more comfortable with it than I am with the other words.
Not having a word for “is” didn’t stop the Chinese from coming up with the “white horse not horse” thing, though.