Science and technology
TODAY'S quick hit: Yahoo! News has picked up a trope of Rick Perry's verbal style, namely the phrase "I would suggest to you..." Despite the fact that it's almost a full sentence (it's not quite, because "suggest" requires a direct object), he uses it more as a pause-filler:
- "Sotomayor, and Kagan, are both activists judges, and I would suggest to you that is an example of my concern about, I believe the Supreme Court should not be making legislative decisions and telling Americans how to live."
- "When I make a vow to God, then I would suggest to you that's even stronger than a handshake in Texas."
- "I would suggest to you, let's have that conversation. Is that one of the fixes? Get it back to the states. Why is the federal government even in the pension program or the health-care delivery program? Let the states do it."
- "I've talked to both of them, as a matter of fact, in the last 24 hours," Perry said. "If they have, news to me. I would suggest to you that that's just scuttlebutt. Highly technical Aggie term for 'not correct.'"
None of these sentences would be substantially changed by the removal of "I would suggest to you."
In other words, I'd suggest to you that this is a product of the fact that educated people and frequent public speakers have learned to avoid deprecated pause-fillers like "uh" and "like". But even the most fluent of speakers sometimes needs to slow down (and Rick Perry is not the most fluent of speakers), and people usually fill those pauses with something else. (Either that, or they must speak very deliberately and leave pauses unfilled, which can lead to a slightly bizarre verbal affect.) Mark Liberman was on the case with another Perryism, "if you will", back in July. And before anyone suggests that "if you will" means something and "like" doesn't, there are plenty of scholarly papers (like this one) on the discourse function of "like".
Pause-fillers and discourse-particles aren't the same thing, of course, but there is clearly some overlap. "I would suggest to you" sounds like it is intended to provide some discourse signalling, but Mr Perry's frequent use of it suggests that this is something he says reflexively as he gathers his thoughts.