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Definitions, Ironies, Semantic Whirligigs, Wisecracks …
“Is”
Watch out for words attributing essence or identity to something. English Prime selects “is” for its prime synecdoche.
| The little word is has its tragedies; it marries and identifies different things with the greatest innocence; and yet no two are ever identical, and if therein lies the charm of wedding them and calling them one, therein too lies the danger. Whenever I use the word is, except in sheer tautology, I deeply misuse it; and when I discover my error, the world seems to fall asunder and the members of my family no longer know one another.
George Santayana
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(God, I love Santayana! How come I haven’t read more of him?)
Aristotle, Plato, Aquinas … routinely misled themselves by their grammar. Until, if ever, if possible, a rational language is forged — and all then achieve competence in it, sentient (ahem) Homo sapiens is simply stuck.
Try a search on English Prime at Knatz.com, at RAWilson.com …
