Fwd: Psycholinguistics?

[Margaret Lee]

> Subject:  Psycholinguistics
> Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2003 23:59:48 -0800
> >
> Psycholinguistics
>
>
> Mark Crispin Miller (NYU) attempted to catalogue GW's verbal
> gaffes.
> Some favorites:
> “The vast majority of our imports come from outside the country."
> "If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure."
> "The future will be better tomorrow."
>
>
> "He meant it for a laugh," wrote the Star. The author of Boxed In:
> The Culture of TV believes "Bush is not an imbecile. He's not a
> puppet.
> I think that Bush is a sociopathic personality. I think he's
> incapable of
> empathy. He has an inordinate sense of his own entitlement, and
> he's a
> very skilled manipulator And in all the snickering about his
> alleged idiocy,
> this is what a lot of people miss."
>
> Miller's judgment – that an unelected president might suffer from a
> clinical
> personality disorder – is much heavier than being called the global
> village
> idiot. "He has no trouble speaking off the cuff when he's speaking
> punitively,
> when he's talking about violence, when he's talking about revenge.
> When he
> struts and thumps his chest, his syntax and grammar are fine,"
> Miller mentions.
> "It's only when he leaps into the wild blue yonder of compassion,
> or idealism,
> or altruism, that he makes these hilarious mistakes."
>
> Bush even has trouble repeating comforting clichés.
> "Fool me once, shame ... shame on ... you...."  Long, uncomfortable
> pause.
> "Fool me - can't get fooled again!"
>
> While the world was laughing, Miller saw something darker. "What's
> revealing
> about this is that Bush could not say, `Shame on me' to save his
> life. That's a
> completely alien idea to him. This is a guy who is absolutely proud
> of his own
> inflexibility and rectitude," wrote Miller.
>
> Miller says that Bush saying, "I know how hard it is to put food on
> your family"
> is not 'cause he's stupid, but "because he doesn't care about
> people who can't put
> food on the table."
>
> When Bush is envisioning "a foreign-handed foreign policy," Miller
> contends it's
> because he can't keep his focus on things that mean nothing to him.
> "When he
> tries to talk about what this country stands for, or about
> democracy, he can't do
> it," Miller observes.
>
> According to Miller, this is why GW is so closely watched by his
> handlers. "Not
> because he'll say something stupid," the Star paraphrased, "but
> because he'll
> overindulge in the language of violence and punishment at which he
> excels."
>
> "He's a very angry guy, a hostile guy," Miller says. "He's much
> like Nixon. So
> they're very, very careful to choreograph every move he makes. They
> don't want
> him anywhere near protestors, because he would lose his temper."
> Adds this
> media expert, "It would be a grave mistake to just play him for
> laughs."
>
>


=====
Margaret G. Lee, Ph.D.
Associate Professor - English and Linguistics
 & University Editor
Department of English
Hampton University, Hampton, VA 23668
(757)727-5769(voice);(757)727-5084(fax);(757)851-5773(home)
e-mail: margaret.lee at hamptonu.edu   or   mlee303 at yahoo.com

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