Bushspeak

[Dennis R. Preston]

The columnist Tom Sowell noted that Gore was untrustworthy since he
modified his speech (at an African-American NYC meeting) to imitate the
style of a Black preacher. Accommodation theory, of course, predicts that
detected speech accommodation may be unappreciated. It would be nice to
know what the people who were at the rally thought (since we know what
Sowell thinks of AAE in general).

Odd (but sad) that, as usual, as in yet another NYTimes piece, pundits
pundify on language with no reference to scientific work. Better than it
was only a few years ago, but still pretty shallow (when you consider the
fact that "chemistry" news would not be printed without at least a quick
consultation with a chemist).

dInIs



>A provincial note:  here in Columbus GA, a local wag-wannabe wrote a letter
>to the editor of the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer that lambasted Al Gore for not
>maintaining a proper "Southern" accent, a sure sign that he doesn't
>represent Southern voters.  (!?!)  The writer praised Bush for not hiding
>his accent.  The writer supports Bush for this "reason."
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On Behalf
>Of Joe Pickett
>Sent: Friday, October 20, 2000 5:21 PM
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>Subject: Bushspeak
>
>
>I apologize if I injected an overly political note into the discussion on
>Bush's style of speaking, off or on the cuff.
>And I realize now that I shouldn't have posted the text of that article on
>this website.  I guess URL's are OK, but not articles. Mea culpa.
>
>I think it is interesting, however, how political candidates try to use
>speaking styles to appear as one of the people, someone you can relate to,
>etc., and how quickly a misspoken word gets picked up and made much of in
>the media as tell-tale evidence of mental slowness. Gail Collins in the
>NYTimes today observes how the candidates turn their accents up and down,
>according to the occasion.
>
>Erroll Morris (sp?), the biographer of Reagan, said once that people made a
>mistake in assuming that Ronald Reagan was unintelligent. In Morris's view,
>Reagan was keenly intelligent, "but not curious." That is, he had a
>vigorous native intellect but lacked curiosity about the world. I would say
>that George W. Bush might fit the same pattern.
>
>To me, curiosity and intelligence go hand in hand. But I could be wrong
>about that.
>
>Joe


Dennis R. Preston
Department of Linguistics and Languages
Michigan State University
East Lansing MI 48824-1027 USA
preston at pilot.msu.edu
Office: (517)353-0740
Fax: (517)432-2736