Pink elephants

Bill McFarlan is a Scottish journalist and author who identified the use of "unprompted negatives" in speech as signposts to the activity the speaker is trying to deny. He calls these denials "Pink Elephants". So:

"There can be no whitewash at the White House" suggests that there was; and,
"I did not have sexual relations with that woman..." suggests that he did.

Bill's conclusion is that to make ourselves better understood - and to avoid drawing attention to something we don't mean (or want) to - we need to drop the Pink Elephant.

Which made me pay attention to this story:

Rifkind stresses youth and energy
"A lot of people think that because I was a colleague of Ken Clarke(65) and Michael Howard(64) that I am the same age - I'm not" said the former Foreign Secretary.

But, now they think you are...

Comments

[The Pedant-General]

"But, now they think you are..."

And as, indeed, he turns out to be....

Toodle Pip!
PG