Linguistically Speaking

Is English capable of demagoguery?



From: YouTube

A perfectly tuned conversation is a vision of sanity.

Tannen, Deborah (1986): That's Not What I Meant! New York: Ballantine Books, 5.

American college girls did, and no doubt do, play down their intelligence, skills, and determinativeness when in the presence of datable boys, thereby manifesting a profound psychic discipline in spite of their international reputation for flightiness. These performers are reported to allow their boy friends to explain things to them tediously that they already know [...]

' One of the nicest techniques is to spell long words incorrectly once in a while. My boy friend seems to get a great kick out of it and writes back, 'Honey, you certainly don't know how to spell.'"

Through all of this the natural superiority of the male is demonstrated, and the weaker role of the female affirmed.

-- Goffman, Erving (1959). The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. New York: Anchor Books, 53.

From: www.everydaypeoplecartoons.com

...is that if you use them, you should use them correctly.

"[...] Sacks and Schegloff 1979 is slight and not well known. But in addition to its substantive interest, the paper offers an explicitly conversation-systemic, and so naturwissenschafter, argument that is general, straightforward, and simple enough [...]"

From: Moerman, Michael. 1988. Talking Culture: Ethnography and Conversation Analysis. University of Pennsylvania Press.

Der Mond ist die Wunde der Nacht,
Blutstropfen sind alle Sterne.
Ob ich dem blühenden Glück auch ferne,
ich bin dafür bescheiden gemacht.
Der Mond ist die Wunde der Nacht.

Robert Walser (1897/8)

Emma
Sarah
Stephanie
Angelina

Daniel
Jack
Owen
Travis

(Got some hope for Charlotte though).

In the Philippines, the names of Saints are often bestowed on infants. After World War II, one child was named Ababis, supposedly the name of the patron saint of the United States. The child's father had repeatedly heard American soldiers, in moments of emotiotional stress, call on the saint: San Ababis.

(Hockett 1958, 404)