… the distinction between public and private speech is key here, so I am unconvinced that his current speech patterns can be analyzed as evidence of dementia. Instead, they’re characteristics of casual speech as it has always existed.It is easy to forget how much casual speech in general differs from writing. We tend to imagine our speech is tidier than it often is. The complete sentences and logical throughlines of writing are a stylization of speech, rather than a mirror image.
Wednesday, February 07, 2018
In case you wondered …
… Opinion | What Trump’s Speech Says About His Mental Fitness - The New York Times. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
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ReplyDeleteCasual doesn't mean incoherent. McWhorter has chosen (cherry-picked?) a passage in which Trump is coherent. There are plenty of other examples in which he is not.
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, the following says it all:
'Mr. Trump also turns the lens in on himself when he switches from “you” to “I” within the passage, another indication of the fundamentally subjective nature of casual speech, even if his ample use of it suggests an especially strong focus upon the self.'
Er, a MAMMOTH focus upon HIMSELF: 'the self' adds too much distance to Trump's massive displays of egotism.