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<p>The 45th President of the United States has
already been called to account for his mangling of the English language
and observers have noted his gadfly approach to building single ideas,
and changing them mid-stream of consciousness when he goes off-script,
which is often. </p>
<p>In fact part of Donald Trump’s appeal, explaining many of
the 58 million votes he won, is that he speaks like part of the
electorate, or at least in a language they can understand. <br>
But what about the rest of the world? Is Donald Trump going to find himself crashing into a language barrier? </p>
<p>You may think his electoral appeal belongs firmly in a tradition of frank or plain political speaking, an early theorist being <a href="http://www.bostonleadershipbuilders.com/plutarch/moralia/how_to_tell_a_flatterer_from_a_friend.htm" target="_blank">Plutarch</a> in the first century. But Plutarch said this about frankness:</p>
<p>“It should be combined with good manners, and there should be reason in it to take away its excess and insanity.”</p>
<p>Trump’s rudeness and violent statements regarding minorities are already well-documented and are not the focus of this article.</p>
<p><strong>A bigly problem</strong></p>
<p>The crucial aspect of the Donald Problem is technical. The
president is a nightmare to translate, and this despite him coming out
of a <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/1603.05739" target="_blank">recent academic study</a> with the language skills of a 13-year old. </p>
<p>That is not the problem it at first sounds, as a majority
of the population does indeed respond to simple language that they use
day-to-day. No harm in a politician speaking the people’s language,
surely? </p>
<p>His speech suits online translators very well. They stay
close to the original in several languages, which matches most
teenagers’ speech structures; short phrases, single words, simple
narratives.</p>
<p>But what if what is expressed sounds like it’s coming from a
teenager on a bad day who finds grammar a bore compared to a
testosterone rush? Apart from the problem that poses for domestic and
foreign reporters and journalists imagine the international shockwaves
once Donald goes on his travels.</p>
<p>Here is a well-known example from back in July 2016 on the
campaign trail we copy-pasted into Google to see. Ostensibly it is about
Iran and the nuclear issue. Try it out yourself in whatever languages
you master:</p>
<p>“Look, having <strong>nuclear</strong> — my uncle was a great professor and scientist and engineer, Dr. John Trump at <span class="gmail-caps">MIT</span>;
good genes, very good genes, OK, very smart, the Wharton School of
Finance, very good, very smart —you know, if you’re a conservative
Republican, if I were a liberal, if, like, OK, if I ran as a liberal
Democrat, they would say I’m one of the smartest people anywhere in the
world — it’s true! — but when you’re a conservative Republican they try —
oh, do they do a number — that’s why I always start off: Went to
Wharton, was a good student, went there, went there, did this, built a
fortune —you know I have to give my like credentials all the time,
because we’re a little disadvantaged — but you look at the <strong>nuclear</strong> deal, the thing that really bothers me — it would have been so easy, and it’s not as important as these lives are <strong>nuclear is powerful</strong>;
my uncle explained that to me many, many years ago, the power and that
was 35 years ago; he would explain the power of what’s going to happen
and he was right — who would have thought?), but when you look at what’s
going on with the four prisoners — now it used to be three, now it’s
four — but when it was three and even now, I would have said it’s all in
the messenger; fellas, and it is fellas because, you know, they don’t,
they haven’t figured that the women are smarter right now than the men,
so, you know, it’s gonna take them about another 150 years — but <strong>the Persians are great negotiators, the Iranians are great negotiators, so, and they, they just killed, they just killed us</strong>.”</p>
<p><strong>Patter, not policy</strong></p>
<p>The words in bold are just to give an easy glimpse of the
mentions nuclear and Iran get in between rambling about his uncle, his
past, how clever he was, how much he’s criticised and something totally
random about gender politics, I think.</p>
<p>On-subject the translatable part is “the Iranians talked rings around us at the negotations”.</p>
<p>But now imagine the more subtle arts of diplomacy getting
their hands on these words. What can be inferred? A multitude of
possibilities opens up, ranging from taking a cheap pop at the position
of women in Iranian society, to revealing a massive inferiority complex.
Absurd? Of course, but sometimes Trump’s language leaves those seeking
to understand him little choice but to draw their own conclusions.</p>
<p>This can be taken to its logical absurdity for laughs. One <span class="gmail-caps">MIT</span> whiz programmed a twitterbot to sound just like Donald Trump, <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/how-donald-trump-talks-2016-9?r=US&IR=T" target="_blank">DeepDrumpf</a>, using artificial intelligence.</p><p><a href="http://www.euronews.com/2017/01/26/translating-trump-how-the-president-s-language-may-pose-policy-problems">http://www.euronews.com/2017/01/26/translating-trump-how-the-president-s-language-may-pose-policy-problems</a><br></p></div></section></div></article></div></div><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature">**************************************<br>N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to its members<br>and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner or sponsor of the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who disagree with a message are encouraged to post a rebuttal, and to write directly to the original sender of any offensive message. A copy of this may be forwarded to this list as well. (H. Schiffman, Moderator)<br><br>For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to <a href="https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/" target="_blank">https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/</a><br>listinfo/lgpolicy-list<br>*******************************************</div>
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