MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND SCIENCES 
 
 
 
 
 

BUSHISMS: IILITERACY AS A TYPE OF POLYSEMY.

Course paper 
 
 
 

Specialty: 050207 – Translator Professional

Discipline: basic theory of the studied language 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Almaty, 2009 

CONTENTS 

Introduction ……………………………………………………………………....3

I. Illiteracy due to the fact of polysemy. Bushisms from a linguistic view ……....5

1.1. A note on bushisms of all times……………………………………………...6

1.2. Bushisms from the inside view ……………………………………………...6

1.3. Bushisms have a common touch …………………………………………….9

1.4. Richard Thompson’s poem about bushisms ………………………………...10

1.5. Other related linguistic elements: …………………………………………...12

- Mondegreens;

- Spoonerisms;

- Damaging quotation;

- Eggcorn;

- Freudian slip.

II. The analysis of the bushisms’ phenomenon ………………………………….20

2.1. Beyond bushisms…………………………………………………………….22

2.2. Various definitions ………………………………………………………….22 

2.3. Reasons ……………………………………………………………………...23

2.4. Bushisms: best moments …………………………………………………....27

Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………30

Bibliography……………………………………………………………………..31 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

INTRODUCTION 

  Being able to read and write is an important skill nowadays. But very often this is not enough to be called literate. Due to illiteracy of people who for various reasons are unable to understand what they read, cannot write well enough, or cannot use the words in their speech properly – there are situations of misunderstanding and even conflicts.

  This occurs for several reasons.  One of the main reason is the usage of polysemantic words, in linguistics these words  are related to polysemy. Improper usage of polysemantic words in the context represents the serious difficulties in communication and information transfer.  Illiteracy in this sphere is connected with a term “Bushisms”.

       The term “Bushisms” has become widely recognized, partly due to book titles and web sites dedicated to the American President G.W. Bush’s quotations. Bushism can also describe the doctrine of the George W. Bush administration connected with  his peculiar speeches that are widely discussed by people of all over the world. All of the above information proves the actuality of this problem.

       At the same time, the novelty of the current research work is in identifying the causes of the Bushisms’ origin and comparing them with other similar linguistic types of illiteracy.

  

The basic method of the research work  is a descriptive analysis of Bushisms’origin.

The main purpose of my course paper is to demonstrate and prove that Bushisms which lead to illiteracy, represent the fact of linguistic phenomena. 
 
 
 

  Accordingly the main objectives of my research work  are as follows:

1. Show the connection between illiteracy and polysemy and their relation the bushisms’ origin.
2. Give the descriptive analysis of the bushisms’ phenomenon.

  In this work I’ve studied the information from such authors as Jacob Weisberg, Molly Ivins and Donald Davidson. I’ve chosen Jacob Weisberg's Books as a main source of the course paper. In his book “Deluxe Election Edition Bushisms” Jacob Weisberg describes the Bush era, that has been a special time  for the deficit (back, and larger than ever), for the countries formerly known as our allies, and for the English language. With new Bushisms coming fast and furious in this election season, ace Bushism editor Jacob Weisberg offers a must-read compendium and "explanation" of the first term.

  The structure of the course paper: contents, introduction, two main chapters, conclusion, bibliography and also a presentation as the appendix. Chapter one is called: Illiteracy due to the fact of polysemy; Bushisms from a linguistic view. Chapter two is called: the analyses of the Bushisms’ phenomenon. In addition, these chapters include a number of paragraphs that also contain the necessary information about Bushisms’ and other related linguistic elements.  
 
 
 
 
 

I. ILLITERACY DUE TO THE FACT OF POLYSEMY. BUSHISMS FROM A LINGUISTIC VIEW.

  It is known, that polysemy is the fact that some words have a network of different but related meanings.  For the last two decades polysemy has also been at the centre of attention of linguistics research, where problems of word senses and word sense disambiguation are vividly discussed. Linguistics studies such phenomenon as illiteracy.

    Polysemy comes from Latin “polysemia”, which comes from Greek “polusemous” poly (many) + sema (sign) giving us a linguistic term, "having many meanings" or multiple meanings. The words “polysemy” and “polysemous” are defined as "having or characterized by many meanings; the existence of several meanings for a single word or phrase". ¹ As said earlier, these terms refer to "words" or other "items of language with two or more senses". Such senses may be more or less distant from one another, it is generally agreed that in each case only one word is being discussed, not two that happen to have the same form. 

  Improper usage, biased or distorted understanding of the information indicates the speaker's illiteracy and leads to conflicts and misunderstandings. Due to many reasons why illiteracy is still exists, in linguistics there are many sections that studying the phenomenon of polysemy and related illiteracy. Sections of linguistics study the problem of illiteracy, related to the polysemy of words, at present day these sections include such linguistic phenomena as: malapropism, neologism, ambiguity, damaging quotation, spoonerism, eggcorn and also bushism, which became a relatively recent type of verbal illiteracy. The orientation of this course paper is to describe the linguistic problem of bushims’ phenomenon while analyzing the examples of some Bush’s specific statements. It is necessary to study the causes and consequences of this phenomenon to avoid repetition of this kind of mistakes in the future.

1.1. A NOTE ON BUSHISMS OF ALL TIMES

  Other presidents have shared the same perception of linguistic ineptitude, including Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, and Harry S. Truman. Though Jackson was considered the ultimate back-county rube, he oversaw the fall of the aristocracy and the rise of the common man; Lincoln, thought to be a Bible-spouting baboon, is now considered one of the greatest leaders the world has ever produced; and Truman, the uneducated haberdasher, laid the basic political foundation of the Post-Modern world, which is only now yielding to, well, the post Post-Modern world (whatever that may be). This is not to say that linguistic ineptness invariably leads to greatness. History shows us that we’ve had our fill of verbally challenged chief executives who were also severely overtaxed by the burdens of office and have now fallen most ungraciously into the various dustbins of failed expectations. And then there was Warren G. Harding. He is said to have scandalously coined the term ‘hospitalization’ in the 1920s. A quick Google search shows that the word now appears on the web more than 8 million times. Well done, Warren! Not a bad legacy for a third-rate president. Like the ‘Yogi-isms’ of Baseball Hall of Famer Lawrence P. “Yogi” Berra, some of Bush’s most famous Bushisms can be found in literature many years before he supposedly coined them. ‘Resignate’ dates to the 18th century, and ‘Grecian’ as a reference to things Greek was the preferred way to describe those inhabiting the Greek Isles from the 18th century onward. Even ‘Misunderestimate’ can be found in 1960’s literature. ²

1.2. BUSHISMS FROM THE INSIDE VIEW

  "I’m more interacting with people," he said. So go the famous words of George W. Bush, president of the United States The list goes on. Most people in America and many across the world have observed the peculiar speech of President Bush. There are numerous terms for it: "Bushisms," "Bushlexis," "the Bush Mouth Disease." "It’s something we all do, some more than others," said Alan Cienki,³ associate professor of linguistics. "Some of us do it more under pressure, in spur-of-the-moment situations. Being a world leader definitely puts you in that high-pressure category." Cienki has studied Bush’s speech patterns and presented a lecture titled, "‘They Misunder-estimated Me’: Insights About ‘Bushisms’ From the Perspective of Cognitive Linguistics," Wednesday, Oct. 8, in Winship Ballroom. With published books and even websites dedicated to chronicling every presidential misspeak, what now exists is a rare set of linguistic data derived from one person over a number of years. So why do professors like Cienki study it? For one, Bushisms are not nonsense; most people understand what was intended, and such speech is not unique to Bush. There are a number of ways people warp speech, Cienki said, whether it’s by blending two words to make one, putting a word in the wrong context or using the wrong verb tense. By analyzing the linguistic data that exists from Bush’s documented speech patterns, linguistics professionals like Cienki now have a number of examples from which they can study typical types of verbal blunders.

  Bushisms typically involve the blending of words. For example, Bush once used the term "revengeful," a combination of "revenge" and "vengeful." Because language evolves over time, combining two words to make a new word is a common approach, linguistically. For instance, Cienki said, the word "smog" is derived from "fog" and "smoke." Other times people combine not two words but two phrases. In reference to his brother, Bush called Jeb the "great governor of Texas." While he meant "great governor of Florida," he was combining "great state of Texas" with "governor of Florida." Another time he said, "I know how hard it is for you to put food on your family," fusing "put food on your table" with "provide food for your family." Such speech may be strange or incorrect, but Cienki said "blends are a mechanism of creativity and lexical innovation." People also often substitute more common words for the less common, resulting in grammatical error. Bush has used "subscribe" in place of "ascribe" and "tenants" in place of "tenets." Another time he said, "I’m very gracious and humbled," rather than "grateful."

  Then there is Cienki’s favorite Bushism, the so-called "double Bushism:" "I’ve coined new words, like ‘misunderstanding’ and ‘Hispanically.’" Although "Hispanically" is not a word, "misunderstanding" is. In this example, Cienki said, Bush overcompensated; while trying to refer to his use of "misunderestimating," he corrected himself and deferred to a proper word. Because these examples of Bush’s speech patterns are typically demonstrated in full view of the public, they often are scrutinized, but Cienki said everyone does it from time to time. Why we do it and why some of us do it more than others are questions still left to be answered, he added.

1.3. BUSHISMS HAVE A COMMON TOUCH

   Lincoln will forever be remembered for Gettysburg, though his address was dismissed at the time as underwhelmingly ordinary. John Kennedy's "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country" still brings a lump to the throat. Then there's brother Robert's "Some men see things as they are and say 'why'. I dream things that never were and say 'why not." Famous words are no doubt shaped and vetted a thousandfold before being released.

  George Bush will also go down in history for his language. Two days before last week's US election, I keyed "Bushism" into Google and scored 49,600 hits. A "Bushism" is a blanket term for any of GWB's innovative, aberrant or "apparently fatuous" remarks. I predict that it will share the destiny of other eponyms - such as hoover, bandaid, cardigan, sandwich, malapropism - that started out as proper nouns, eventually losing their capitals as they broadened their sphere of influence.

  Forensic linguists and speech pathologists may coin a general term - perhaps "Bush's syndrome", Bushitis or Bushlexia - for spoken language dysfluencies. But if we must lump them all together (a bit linguistically lazy in my view), then let's go for a "spectrum", rather than a "syndrome". Some Bushisms entail a confusion of words. "We cannot let terrorists hold this nation hostile." This one, while unforgivable, is perhaps understandable: they share their opening "hos"; they're both bi-syllabic, with a stressed first syllable. Both share a semantic field (shall we call it "terror discourse"?) and often rub shoulders in the same sentence.

  Bush's grammar could do with a dusting. Especially his recurring problem with noun-verb concord ("literacy level are appalling"). On the other hand, his pronunciation gaffes (for example, urging nations to "lower terriers and barras") may be less strident were his every public uttered word not immediately transcribed and beamed around the world. 

1.4. RICHARD THOMPSON’S POEM ABOUT BUSHISMS 

  Bushisms are any of a number of peculiar words

, phrase

s, pronunciation

s, malapropism

s, semantic or linguistic errors, and gaffes that have occurred in the public speaking of United States President 

George W. Bush 

and, before that, of his father George H. W. Bush

. The term, a neologism

, has become part of popular folklore, and is the basis of a number of websites and published books. It is often used to caricature  

the two presidents. Common characteristics include malapropism

s, the creation of neologism

s, and spoonerism

s. Some columnists – including the late Molly Ivins

, co-author of a book of Bushisms⁴ – have suggested that Bush may have difficulty speaking "Washington  

English", and that he may be trying to cover his dialect  

by over-emphasizing words. Some have hypothesized that Bush is not familiar with some of the words that he feels he must use as president. Bush's misuse of the English language has spawned dozens of books that document the phenomenon. The majority are written by Slate

Magazine editor Jacob Weisberg

. The first, Bushisms, was released there in 2002. The Bushism books have been received well around the world, with editions released in Germany

, France

, and Italy 

landing on best seller lists. A poem entitled “Make the Pie Higher”, composed entirely of Bushisms, was compiled by high school English teacher Dirk Schulze under the pseudonym of "Richard Thompson", as an example of a found poem  

for his students. This following poem is composed entirely of actual quotes from George W. Bush:

MAKE THE PIE HIGHER

I think we all agree, the past is over. 
This is still a dangerous world. 
It's a world of madmen 
And uncertainty 
And potential mental losses.

Rarely is the question asked 
Is our children learning? 
Will the highways of the internet 
Become more few? 
How many hands have I shaked?

They misunderestimate me. 
I am a pitbull on the pantleg of opportunity. 
I know that the human being and the fish 
Can coexist.

Families is where our nation finds hope 
Where our wings take dream. 
Put food on your family! 
Knock down the tollbooth! 
Vulcanize society! 
Make the pie higher! 
Make the pie higher!

  Here you can see the related linguistic elements: Eggcorn, Malapropism and Yogiism. These are the another linguistic elements which like the bushisms lead to illiteracy. It is important to know how to distinguished them and avoid in one’s speech in future. The following paragraph describes these linguistics types of language illiteracy.   
 

1.5. OTHER RELATED LINGUISTIC ELEMENTS

MALAPROPISM

  It is verbal blunder in which one word is replaced by another similar in sound but different in meaning. Although William Shakespeare had used the device for comic effect, the term derives from Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s character Mrs. Malaprop, in his play The Rivals (1775). Her name is taken from the term malapropos (French: “inappropriate”) and is typical of Sheridan’s practice of concocting names to indicate the essence of a character. Thinking of the geography of contiguous countries, she spoke of the “geometry” of “contagious countries,” and hoped that her daughter might “reprehend” the true meaning of what she is saying. She regretted that her “affluence” over her niece was very small. So, the definition is: Absurd or humorous misuse of a word, especially by confusion with one of similar sound. Here are some examples and observations: