If Barack Obama is copying Danny Williams’ economic thing-that-isn’t-a-strategy-but-gets-called-strategy-anyway, then it’s only a matter of time before someone claims that Caroline Kennedy is now aping the local trend.
The wannabe senator from New York is the subject of blog and media reports for her repeated use of “you know” in recent media interviews.
What we are talking about here is a verbal tic of the sort many people have. Media trainers and public speaking coaches work diligently to get them out of their students’ speeches because um, they, ah, become, like, you know, distracting, right? They are habits in some instances. They are space fillers in other cases. No matter the cause, they distract from the message or in some instances suggest the speaker is not as well educated and intelligent as he or she might actually be.
Some, like one at left, just string together all the “you knows” - 46 to be exact - from a single five minute interview.
Others give the whole interview or a significant chunk of it to drive home the point another way.
Closer to home, Bond Papers noted some time ago a tendency the Premier has to use the “you know” tick. There were 11 in a 42 second clip at the front end of a CBC interview with the majority being within the first 12 seconds. On that occasion, the Premier tossed in another of his favourite tics - “quite frankly” and added a “right” just for good measure.
To correct the problem of verbal tics one has to want to get rid of them. No surprise, therefore, that the Premier continues to tic away, especially in his off-the- cuff remarks:
Night Line (October):
And, you know, there are issues that are very, very important to Newfoundlanders and Labradorians and we look at the economy and we look at where the American economy is going and Minister Flaherty was on last week and the Prime Minister is out saying oh no, we don't have to worry in Canada, everything is fabulous, everything is wonderful. But, you know, we have to realize that, you know, we do have a direct link to that American economy and if that tanks at some point in time, then, you know, we are vulnerable.
…
Now that's not to say that, you know, there's going to be gloom and doom in Canada because Canada's fundamental are sound and I firmly believe that.
…
And on the other side of it, you know, from our own perspective, you know, our economy is strong, we're in a better position than we've ever been, we're also in a very good position now with the, you know, the international financial crisis that's underway. We now, for the first time in our lives, are in a bit of a financial bubble and that's a wonderful thing. We have that protection and the people of this province got the support of the provincial government.
…
You know, we've built a war chest and, as well, we've tried to move our debt down to get us in a good position so that if ever there was a very, very, very serious situation we'd have to take that debt back up again, but we'd have the ability to do it. But, you know, we've been really, very fiscally prudent and fiscally responsible.
…
So, you know, Newfoundland and Labrador is very much on the move and so, you know, I'm pleased with the position we're in and I do think we're in a favoured position, to be quite honest with you.
You will notice, as well, some of the Premier’s other verbal tics and mannerisms in those extracts as well. First, the opening remarks are one giant run on sentence. This is not a guy who speaks in sentences. He just dumped a whole mass of verbiage out there in one big string. Second, there’s the tendency to use “very” in a string one twos and threes, as if more than one added some appreciable extra emphasis.
Lastly, there’s the “to be quite honest with you” at the end. It’s akin to “nothing could be further from the truth,” except that in this case it isn’t used to deny an accusation. This time the “honest” phrase is tossed in gratuitously, as if people might possibly be thinking he wasn’t honest enough before. Now he is “quite” honest.
Thanks to the marvels of modern technology, it is quite easy to total the instances of these verbal tics in transcripts, like the one for Danny Williams appearance at the Cameron Inquiry. He said “you know” as a verbal tic 270 times. There were only eight “quite franklys” and a handful of “to be honests”.
It’s that kind of frequency that makes “you know” stand out.
A verbal tick like that one stands out even more when it comes as part of a relatively short sentence like one of the Premier’s responses to a question at Cameron: “You know, do we still know?”
If the answer had been known, the question wouldn’t have been asked.
You know?
-srbp-
