Wednesday, April 23, 2008

A Guide to Understanding the Good Lord(s)

Those with an interest in rhetoric and the art of doublespeak should enjoy Lord Norton's breakdown of rhetoric in the House of Commons, such as:
The noble Lord, for whom I have the greatest respect…’ = 'You’ve lost it this time'

and the classic:
‘My Lords’, if repeated several times within the course of a few sentences = 'Help!'

I remember seeing a similar list for articles in academic journals a while back, maybe Google will help me out on that one. In the meantime, as political correctness becomes just another part of society, do we ever actually say anything on the lines, rather than in-between them any more?

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