Ben Zimmer famous quotes

Last updated: Sep 5, 2024

When words come out of politician's mouth that are linguistically incorrect, people see it reflecting their intelligence. Sarah Palin was called out for "refudiate," which seemed to combine refute and repudiate. One favourite Bushism was "misunderestimate."
-- Ben Zimmer

#People #Mouths #Politician
Hillary Clinton has been portrayed as robotic, someone who is trying to approximate real human emotion.
-- Ben Zimmer

#Real #Trying #Emotion
Donald Trump himself has an idiosyncratic speaking style that relies on simple words and phrases, which worked for him in the primaries but may be coming up short for him now.
-- Ben Zimmer

#Simple #Style #Phrases
Even though a definite article is supposed to bring something into focus, Donald Trump uses it in a very general way. It's seen by many observers as a kind of racial distancing. Often using that article seems unnecessary. [But] it is serving some function, which is to represent a group collectively rather than as individuals.
-- Ben Zimmer

#Focus #Groups #Use
Sometimes people are primed to hear in a certain way. When a word like braggadocious suddenly appears, it's like, 'What, is he just making that up?'
-- Ben Zimmer

#People #Way #Sometimes
Donald Trump speaks extemporaneously, often through stream of consciousness, where it doesn't seem to follow a trajectory.
-- Ben Zimmer

#Consciousness #Speak #Trump
Weaponization of a candidate's words against him or her is something we're seeing a lot. The term Obamacare was used against Obama in a pejorative way, but Obama again reclaimed it.
-- Ben Zimmer

#Obamacare #Way #Used
Even if you close your eyes, you'll still hear Donald Trump sniffing. Linguists might call [these visuals] paralinguistics, every form of information including facial gestures and facial features. Obviously these things get scrutinized in tremendous detail, so that a cough can be of outsized importance. [But] that's all part of the package.
-- Ben Zimmer

#Eye #Details #Gestures

People who deal with life generously and large-heartedly go on multiplying relationships to the end.
The science of anti-Semitism finally comes to explain this phenomenon, enlightening further the consciousness of people, fully satisfying their instinct and its violent eruptions thus legitimized by revealing their cause - the parasitism of the Jews. Thus it gives us the formula of the scientific solution for the problem of Judaism, which in order to realize we have only to apply.
Well, sometimes if I go out to dinner with my family, people will come up to me and put their hand across my plate for me to shake, sometimes when I have a bite of food in my mouth. I find this a bit disturbing
If you really like someone, it doesn't matter what their mouth feels or tastes like. The kiss is still awesome.
Some people approach every problem with an open mouth.
I love a sandwich that you can barely fit in your mouth because there's so much stuff on it. The bread should not be the main thing on a sandwich.
No politician should ever let himself be photographed in a bathing suit.
Nick plays a corrupt politician, which is kind of a redundant statement.
I'm a member of the Academy, but I don't know who all the other Academy members are. It's not like a politician who knows who is in the Iowa caucus.
I have grown used to the fact that public repentance is the most unacceptable option for the modern politician.

Ben Zimmer famous quotes

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