E-Prime是English-Prime的缩写[1](可记作É或E′),指去除了系动词to be(包括所有变位、缩写等形式)的英语。E-Prime由大卫·波兰德(David Bourland)于1940年代提出,以作为阿尔弗雷德·柯日布斯基的普通语义学理论的补充。[2]
支持使用E-Prime的学者认为这能使思考更清晰并增强写作能力。[3]例如,E-Prime不允许出现类似“这部电影是好的”(the film was good)这样的表达,而需改用“我喜欢这部电影”(I liked the film)、“这部电影让我大笑”(the film made me laugh)、“这部电影有价值”(the film has value)等。E-Prime强调用经验并非判断进行表达,以使作者与读者能更容易地区分事实与意见。
- 《Scoundrel Days: a memoir》(Brentley Frazer著)[4]
- 《Under The Eye of God》(David Gerrold著)
- 《Rewild or Die》(Urban Scout著)
- 《A Covenant of Justice》(David Gerrold著)
- 《Worlds of Wonder: How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy》(David Gerrold著)
- 《The New American Standard Bible in E-Prime》(David F. Maas著)[5]
- 《Quantum Psychology》 (Robert Anton Wilson著)
- 《A New Guide to Rational Living》(阿尔伯特·艾利斯与Robert A. Harper著)
- 《Overcoming Procrastination》(阿尔伯特·艾利斯著)
- 《Sex and the Liberated Man》(阿尔伯特·艾利斯著)
- 《Anger: How to Live With and Without It》(阿尔伯特·艾利斯著)
- 《Feeling Better, Getting Better, Staying Better》(阿尔伯特·艾利斯著)
- 《Laws of Form》(G. Spencer-Brown著)
- 《An Insider's Guide to Robert Anton Wilson》(Eric Wagner著)
Cullen Murphy, "Just curious: essays", 1995, ISBN , 039570099X p. 78 (页面存档备份,存于互联网档案馆)
Zimmerman, Daniel. E-Prime as a Revision Strategy. ETC: A Review of General Semantics 58.3: 340–347. Fall 2001 [2009-01-10]. (原始内容存档于2008-10-14). Using E-Prime, I require students to paraphrase about half their sentences—admittedly, in a special way, but using as stylistic models the best of the rest of their sentences, already written in 'native' E-Prime. The more gracefully and effectively they learn to do this, the more they begin to sound like themselves as writers, rather than like all the other writers around them sound about half the time.
存档副本. [2017-12-17]. (原始内容存档于2017-12-29).