Alexander Haig

[Bill Palmer]

A sidebar on yesterday's Seattle Times coverage online, credits Gen. Haig
with:

"There are nuance-al differences between Henry Kissinger and me (not "I",
BTW) on that"

"I'll have to caveat my response on that, Senator"

"careful caution"

"epistemologically-wise"

"saddle myself with a statistical fence"

If I can overcome my aversion to typing (only have a PDF of it), I'll submit
the rest of the Guardian piece.  It's too well done not to pass around.

Bill Palmer

----- Original Message -----
From: "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Sunday, February 21, 2010 9:42 AM
Subject: Re: Alexander Haig


> ---------------------- Information from the mail
> header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: Alexander Haig
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 2/21/2010 07:31 AM, Bill Palmer wrote:
>>General Haig, well known for his various military and governmental
>>accomplishments, may also be remembered by some for his unique
>>approach to language.
>>
>>Keith Allan in "Linguistic meaning" parodies this with an example
>>from The London Guardian from 3 Feb 1981 of a hypothetical piece
>>that might have been written about him, using his style:
>>
>>  "...General Haig has contexted the Polish watchpot somewhat
>> nuancely.  How though, if the situation decontrols, can he stoppage
>> it, mountingly conflagrating? Haig, in congressional hearings
>> before his confirmatory, paradoxed his audtioners by abnormalling
>> his responds, so that verbs were nouns, nouns verbed, and
>> adjectives adverbized. He techniqued a new way to vocabulary his
>> thoughts so as to informationally uncertain anybody listening about
>> what he had actually implicationed, etc, etc..."
>
> Cool.  Can someone easily provide an actual quote?
>
> P.S.  I notice also that -- at least over the radio -- people are now
> calling what Haig did when he usurped governmental power upon Nixon's
> abdication as a good thing.
>
> Joel
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org


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