what if you woke up tomorrow and the
verb to be vanished let’s say the
government abolished it and they make
the penalty for using it death could you
survive now some of you in the audience
might not even know what this verb even
is and I can see if you nervous faces
out there and there’s a pop quiz at the
end of this presentation but by the end
of this you guys should be familiar with
the verb itself so for those of you that
don’t know 2b is the most commonly used
verb in the English language from
Shakespeare’s famous to be or not to be
– philosopher Rene Descartes I think
therefore I am the verb has dominated a
wide variety of scholastic disciplines
over time and many have contemplated its
significance the oxford english corpus
ranks the word be as the second most
written word in english first place
surprisingly goes to the there are eight
words on the screen plus contractions
and they dominate the way that we
communicate with each other if you don’t
believe me think about the last time
that you met someone you didn’t know the
conversation could have gone something
like this hi my name is John I’m Terry
it’s nice to meet you what’s your major
I’m a bio major it’s my third year here
me too
where are you from now John and Terry
wouldn’t survive very long in this new
world in fact it might seem impossible
not to use to be in conversation but I
believe that this new government could
bring a new society and perhaps even a
better society and this idea of removing
to be came from two linguists named
David Borland and Alfred Korzybski they
hated the verb so much that in 1965 they
proposed to eradicate the verb
completely from English and they called
this new form of restricted language
English Prime and this might sound
familiar to some of you if you’ve read
George Orwell’s famous novel 1984 you
would have heard of a restricted
language called new speak and restricted
language is a very familiar
– Orwell who actually proposed to
eradicate certain words from English in
a form called basic English which cut
the language down to a bare-bones of 850
words now to put that in perspective
standard English currently has four
hundred and seventy thousand words now
in or wall’s case we can see that a
language of the size and strength
doesn’t have any positive benefits but I
believe that boiling and courtship skis
language English prime provides numerous
benefits when installed on a personal
level most linguists consider the word
is as an equal sign so for example John
is a good student
John equals a good student that’s sounds
simple enough right but let me ask you
is it possible to be more than one thing
at the same time of course it is and
Spanish philosopher George Santayana
puts this perfectly he says the little
word is has its tragedies it marries and
identifies different things with the
greatest innocence and yet no two are
ever identical so let’s go back to John
when you think of a good student what do
you think I can guarantee you that John
doesn’t pop into my head often is
statements as we’ll call them
put people or things into boxes we draw
preconceived notions about a person when
we hear he is blond she is smart she is
rich you can’t let the words that
describe you define you front surreal
artist rene magritte painted this in
1928 it’s called the treachery of images
and the text at the bottom says this is
not a pipe and I wouldn’t blame some of
you on the audience for thinking but it
is a pipe but it’s not it’s not
literally a pipe we can’t hold it we
can’t smoke out of it when looking at a
map what do you see
although we can grasp the concept of a
map it does not accurate
depict reality we aren’t seeing the
world as it really is through a map the
map is not the territory the map
represents the territory it isn’t a pipe
it represents our concept of a pipe it
shadows the image of a pipe using
English Prime creates less ambiguity and
more clarity to be statements reflect
upon our depiction of reality and is not
an unbiased depiction of reality we all
have different experiences of the same
events so why should we paint it as fact
instead of saying John is a good student
why not say through his experience in
the honors program John excels as a
student that is a more accurate
depiction of reality and it creates less
room for questions
Daniel Zimmerman a professor at
Middlesex College imposed English prime
onto his writing students he felt that
teachers and handbooks have long and
ineffectually suggested that writers
seek stronger alternatives to the verb
to be and the result of his experiment
zimmerman found that his college-level
students did not know anything about
english despite being fluent in it
despite giving them a list of excluded
words after their second third even
fourth drafts he found dozens of
mistakes even when successfully omitting
all of the excluded words the students
created an ungrammatical creole language
which is a mixture of standard English
and English prime that contains
sentences with no verbs at all for
example students wrote he a good student
we use language most obviously to
communicate but language can also affect
our actions the principle of linguistic
relativity or the sapir-whorf hypothesis
states that the structure of human
beings language influences the manner in
which one perceives reality as well as
how one behaves with respect to it and
the most common example used is snow we
have one word for it in English but in
certain indigenous eskimo languages they
have up to 30 words for it based on the
region and the environment that they
live in cognitive therapists encourage
the use of English Prime to reduce the
stress and war perspective of patients
for example saying I am a failure
sounds permanent and all-encompassing if
it’s part of someone’s personality
characteristic to be statements trigger
emotional and mental turmoil while the
English prime alternatives such as I
feel like a failure or I’ve failed my
exam are temporary and adjustable when I
was in high school I used to share my
creative writing with my English teacher
before she even had a chance to read it
I would apologize and say things like
I’m so sorry it’s horrible that part
really needs work it’s bad and one day
she told me that Abby you are your own
worst enemy and while I already had
those suspicions it changed my
perspective on how I dealt with writing
it wasn’t bad it needed work if you take
anything out of this presentation today
it’s not how to dominate the world with
words I would like you to have a self
awareness of the words that you say not
only to others but yourself
because even removing a two letter word
like is can have a monumental impact
thank you [Applause]
verb to be vanished let’s say the
government abolished it and they make
the penalty for using it death could you
survive now some of you in the audience
might not even know what this verb even
is and I can see if you nervous faces
out there and there’s a pop quiz at the
end of this presentation but by the end
of this you guys should be familiar with
the verb itself so for those of you that
don’t know 2b is the most commonly used
verb in the English language from
Shakespeare’s famous to be or not to be
– philosopher Rene Descartes I think
therefore I am the verb has dominated a
wide variety of scholastic disciplines
over time and many have contemplated its
significance the oxford english corpus
ranks the word be as the second most
written word in english first place
surprisingly goes to the there are eight
words on the screen plus contractions
and they dominate the way that we
communicate with each other if you don’t
believe me think about the last time
that you met someone you didn’t know the
conversation could have gone something
like this hi my name is John I’m Terry
it’s nice to meet you what’s your major
I’m a bio major it’s my third year here
me too
where are you from now John and Terry
wouldn’t survive very long in this new
world in fact it might seem impossible
not to use to be in conversation but I
believe that this new government could
bring a new society and perhaps even a
better society and this idea of removing
to be came from two linguists named
David Borland and Alfred Korzybski they
hated the verb so much that in 1965 they
proposed to eradicate the verb
completely from English and they called
this new form of restricted language
English Prime and this might sound
familiar to some of you if you’ve read
George Orwell’s famous novel 1984 you
would have heard of a restricted
language called new speak and restricted
language is a very familiar
– Orwell who actually proposed to
eradicate certain words from English in
a form called basic English which cut
the language down to a bare-bones of 850
words now to put that in perspective
standard English currently has four
hundred and seventy thousand words now
in or wall’s case we can see that a
language of the size and strength
doesn’t have any positive benefits but I
believe that boiling and courtship skis
language English prime provides numerous
benefits when installed on a personal
level most linguists consider the word
is as an equal sign so for example John
is a good student
John equals a good student that’s sounds
simple enough right but let me ask you
is it possible to be more than one thing
at the same time of course it is and
Spanish philosopher George Santayana
puts this perfectly he says the little
word is has its tragedies it marries and
identifies different things with the
greatest innocence and yet no two are
ever identical so let’s go back to John
when you think of a good student what do
you think I can guarantee you that John
doesn’t pop into my head often is
statements as we’ll call them
put people or things into boxes we draw
preconceived notions about a person when
we hear he is blond she is smart she is
rich you can’t let the words that
describe you define you front surreal
artist rene magritte painted this in
1928 it’s called the treachery of images
and the text at the bottom says this is
not a pipe and I wouldn’t blame some of
you on the audience for thinking but it
is a pipe but it’s not it’s not
literally a pipe we can’t hold it we
can’t smoke out of it when looking at a
map what do you see
although we can grasp the concept of a
map it does not accurate
depict reality we aren’t seeing the
world as it really is through a map the
map is not the territory the map
represents the territory it isn’t a pipe
it represents our concept of a pipe it
shadows the image of a pipe using
English Prime creates less ambiguity and
more clarity to be statements reflect
upon our depiction of reality and is not
an unbiased depiction of reality we all
have different experiences of the same
events so why should we paint it as fact
instead of saying John is a good student
why not say through his experience in
the honors program John excels as a
student that is a more accurate
depiction of reality and it creates less
room for questions
Daniel Zimmerman a professor at
Middlesex College imposed English prime
onto his writing students he felt that
teachers and handbooks have long and
ineffectually suggested that writers
seek stronger alternatives to the verb
to be and the result of his experiment
zimmerman found that his college-level
students did not know anything about
english despite being fluent in it
despite giving them a list of excluded
words after their second third even
fourth drafts he found dozens of
mistakes even when successfully omitting
all of the excluded words the students
created an ungrammatical creole language
which is a mixture of standard English
and English prime that contains
sentences with no verbs at all for
example students wrote he a good student
we use language most obviously to
communicate but language can also affect
our actions the principle of linguistic
relativity or the sapir-whorf hypothesis
states that the structure of human
beings language influences the manner in
which one perceives reality as well as
how one behaves with respect to it and
the most common example used is snow we
have one word for it in English but in
certain indigenous eskimo languages they
have up to 30 words for it based on the
region and the environment that they
live in cognitive therapists encourage
the use of English Prime to reduce the
stress and war perspective of patients
for example saying I am a failure
sounds permanent and all-encompassing if
it’s part of someone’s personality
characteristic to be statements trigger
emotional and mental turmoil while the
English prime alternatives such as I
feel like a failure or I’ve failed my
exam are temporary and adjustable when I
was in high school I used to share my
creative writing with my English teacher
before she even had a chance to read it
I would apologize and say things like
I’m so sorry it’s horrible that part
really needs work it’s bad and one day
she told me that Abby you are your own
worst enemy and while I already had
those suspicions it changed my
perspective on how I dealt with writing
it wasn’t bad it needed work if you take
anything out of this presentation today
it’s not how to dominate the world with
words I would like you to have a self
awareness of the words that you say not
only to others but yourself
because even removing a two letter word
like is can have a monumental impact
thank you [Applause]
Please follow and like us: