Diction and President Trump
Words are powerful. They are. They can be wielded as weapons. They can serve as a antidote for the most serious of illnesses. They can move and inspire nations, countries, and the world. Words predominate our day. We cannot go hours or even minutes without speaking them. Words can infect us, so much so that we repeat them over and over again, especially when they are placed to music. We may even say them when do not mean to, or when we are not aware that that we have said them. With such power, words ought to be utilized with precision so that meaning is clear.
Amazingly, words are not utilized with precision. I have noticed that most people have a relaxed view towards diction, i.e., word meaning.
Recently, I spoke with a pre-teen child, intelligent and well-spoken, during a dinner with friends. The juvenile was attempting to compliment the host stating, “The dinner is tasteful.” I pointed out that the word that the juvenile wanted to use was “tasty” not “tasteful.”
“A tasteful dinner might be one that wears a bowtie,” I corrected. “What you mean to say is tasty.” I must relate that the juvenile promptly told me that he meant exactly what he said, creating for his bowl of black eyed peas a napkin bowtie which he placed on top of them. “And, you’re right,” he smugly said to me. “These tasteful black eyed-peas are also tasty.” I could not but laugh at his wonderful resourcefulness and response.
I find that I have corrected my wife as well, no matter how ill-advised such action sounds. For example, I find that she might say, as do a lot of my juveniles who I represent legally, that she does not understand a particular act she sees on television or when she hears someone say something which she believes is inane. I ask her during these times, what it is that she doesn’t understand for which she has no answer, but “All of it.”
I have to remind her that she understands what is being said. Rather, she does not agree with the statement or act. It is not a matter of comprehension but empathy that is at issue.
Here, President Trump uses the term “like” as an adjective, a word to descriptor, in this case, really smart, though it is an odd way to use as a descriptor since it is usually reserved to describe nouns or noun phrases. The descriptive “like,” as defined by Merriam-Webster, means: a) “the same or nearly the same (as in appearance, character, or quantity)” or b) “closely resembling the subject or original.”
Clearly, the intent of President Trump was to state definitive, if not egotistically, that he, in fact, is really smart. However, a strict interpretation of his words would suggest that he is not really smart at all, but only resembling someone who is smart, i.e., someone who acts smart but is not. It is the only reasonable interpretation since something that is “like” something else is not, in fact, that thing, only similar to. If “a” is like ‘b”, it is not “b,” only similar to “b.”
Such word use indicates a laziness in diction. Lazy diction is a threat to our society in that it leads to misinterpretation and misunderstanding. Certainly, the juvenile’s misuse of the term tasteful might not change the quality of a meal, but words used by the president can have dire consequences, especially when that president tends to verbalize the thoughts he is thinking at the moment without taking a moment to review them for their correctness or effectiveness.
This is particularly scary when you understand that the president’s words are the words of a nation, their meaning the reflection of the intentions of the United States. When the president states that his finger is on a “bigger button” than the button available to the leader of North Korea, the president might not mean to start a nuclear war, but the message is present in a very visceral way. It feels like every week President Trump releases a statement which causes some confusion and even fear among the people of the United States.
Evidence of this is the number of press conferences in which the press secretary is required to provide for the press and, by extension, the rest of the world a clear definition of what the president “really meant” or to play lawyer and provide an alternative meaning to President Trump’s words, creating even more lingering doubt about what was actually meant.
If President Trump has any intelligence, it is his ability to use ambiguity and confusion to scare people to act in a manner that he wants. He utilizes the English language like a bank robber utilizes a fire arm shooting shots into the air compelling the victims to act less he is serious in his threats to use the gun on them. The problem, however, is that someone will eventually eventually act on their misinterpretation of President Trump’s words, and we will be the worse for it.
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