Writer Oliver Burkeman celebrates and discusses D. David Bourland, Jr., and his famous contribution to general semantics, E-Prime ("English without be-verbs"), in an article in the January 16, 2010, edition of UK's The Guardian.

Have a read:

"This column will change your life: To be or not to be…"

Writer William Safire is no stranger to general semantics. The author of the "On Language" column for the New York Times Magazine for decades, in his April 12, 2009 entry (p. 14) makes reference to Alfred Korzybski in discussing the new secretary of homeland security Janet Napolitano's use of the euphemism man-caused disaster in place of terrorism.

Noting that "Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan commented: 'Ah. Well, this is only a nuance, but her use of language is a man-caused disaster,'" Safire went on to remark that, "Noonan makes an excellent point of light: a word is not the thing itself. (That was the message of the general semanticist Alfred Korzybski, famous for 'a map is not the territory.') Renaming terrorism 'man-caused disaster' does not begin to deal with the real thing that is terrorism."

Politics aside, we salute Bill Safire for his consciousness of abstracting!

Read the essay online >>

On November 11, 2008, Executive Director Lance Strate, ETC Editor-in-Chief Bill Petkanas, and Douglas Rushkoff were guests on the radio show Where We Live on WNPR.

Click here to listen to an archived version of the hour-long show, plus to read the teaser for the episode.

Thanks to underwriting from IGS member Mr. B.K. Parekh, Chairman of Pidilite Industries Ltd, two seasoned general semantics instructors, Andrea Johnson and Steve Stockdale, recently returned from an 18-day trip to India to introduce general semantics. They gave seminars and workshops at seven different venues in Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Anand, and Vadodara, to a total audience of about 350 individuals.

Video

In the following video, Steve Stockdale presents a multimedia montage of images from the trip to India.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rd-l8Y2-MyM

News Articles

Daily News & Analysis Article

Read an account of one presentation as printed in the daily newspaper DNA (Daily News & Analysis), November 20, 2007, edition.

Click here to read the Daily News & Analysis article.

Gujarati Language Article

The following text is an English translation of an original Gujarati language news article from November 6, 2007.

6 November 2007
Gujurat, India

Chirantana Bhatt Reporting (translation by Professor Sitanshu Yashchandra)

NATIONAL WORKSHOP ON GENERAL SEMANTICS

General Semantics is a topic somewhat unfamiliar to the common man, but it concerns something that plays a very significant role in our daily life. The twelfth National Workshop of the Forum for Contemporary Theory, titled "Cognitive Language Skills for Twenty First Century," discussed extensively details of General Semantics.

Dr. Andrea Johnson, President of the Institute of General Semantics, U.S.A., and Dr Steven Stockdale, its Executive Director, conducted the workshop.

This distinguished National Workshop was planned and organized by Mr. Balvant K. Parekh, Chairman of the Pidilite Industries, India, and President of the Triveni Kalyan Foundation. Speaking to Divya Bhaskar, Mr Balvant Parekh said that he had first read about General Semantics, some twenty-five years back, in the journal, "etc.". General Semantics, Mr. Balvant Parekh said, has been useful to him in every aspect of life, personal, social and professional. "In my professional work within my industry, I had noticed that my employees would, at times, understand what I had told them quite differently from what I intended to convey. General Semantics was useful at such times in solving problems of communication."

Dr. Steven Stockdale, Executive Director of the Institute of General Semantics, told Divya Bhaskar that General Semantics is of key importance in our keeping away from the conflicts, which result from unfulfilled expectations of our subconscious arising out of multiple possibilities before it. General Semantics enables us to keep away from generalizations and to avoid evaluating situations through prejudices."

Talking to Divya Bhaskar, Dr Andrea Johnson, President, said, "General Semantics is not limited strictly to academic reading and information. Only when it is assimilated into life through meditative processes, could it be put into action. General Semantic enables us to avoid coming under undue influence of any single factor and to examine all the different aspects of a situation in order to reach a proper conclusion. People who can question themselves are more readily able to grasp this subject. They are then able to understand that language is a symbolic expression, not a final verdict."

Click here to view the original Gujarati source.