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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
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,"… — Ben Zimmer Copy Share Image
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… — Ben Zimmer Copy Share Image
Donald Trump himself has an idiosyncratic speaking style that relies on simple words and phrases, which worked for him in the primaries but may… — Ben Zimmer Copy Share Image
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… — Ben Zimmer Copy Share Image
Donald Trump speaks extemporaneously, often through stream of consciousness, where it doesn't seem to follow a trajectory. — Ben Zimmer Copy Share Image
Hillary Clinton has been portrayed as robotic, someone who is trying to approximate real human emotion. — Ben Zimmer Copy Share Image
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… — Ben Zimmer Copy Share Image
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… — Ben Zimmer Copy Share Image
![“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…” quote by Ben Zimmer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/055/ben-zimmer-47215_close-your-eyes_even-if-you-close-your-eyes-you-ll-still_2485705.jpg)
![“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…” quote by Ben Zimmer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/7f6/ben-zimmer-47215_articles_even-though-a-definite-article-is-suppos_2932597.jpg)
