Rick writes:
>It's a small change, but suppose we say that the person is behaving like
>a bum... To be more precise, behaving like a bum at this time.
I work (officially) in the business world with information systems. My
brother works as a counselor in ChicagoLand. We share a dislike for the
verb 'to be'. I don't like it because it permits us to say something like
'A decision must be made...' rather than 'Kelly must decide ...' -- that
is, I don't like the passive constructions.
My brother, OTOH, does not like the equation-ness of 'is'. Two times two
is four. 'Is' becomes 'equals'. Harmless enough here, but when you use
what seems to be the same language and say 'Kelly is stupid', you also
seem to be setting up an equation: now and forever two times two is four
and Kelly is stupid. And if Kelly hears that year after year, Kelly may
come to believe it as an eternal truth. As a result, he makes an earnest
effort to change people's language along the lines that Rick suggested:
'Kelly acted without considering the conseuqnces'; 'Kelly did not take
account of Terry's feelings.' Whatever. Rick called it an inference, but
I think I'd call it a generalization.
Michael A
--Michael Ayers mailto:mbayers@mmm.com Voice (612) 733-5690 FAX (612) 737-7718 IT Educ & Perf Svcs\3M Center 224-2NE-02\PO Box 33224 St Paul MN 55133-3224 "Sometimes the right question is, 'Are we asking the right question?'" Ideas contained in this note represent the author's opinions and do not intentionally represent the positions of anyone else in this galaxy.
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