Analysis of Florida Speeches by Presidential Candidates Presaged Muddled Outcome, Reports yourDictionary.com.Business Editors DANVILLE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 8, 2000 Dramatic use of the passive voice signaled a higher degree of 'spin' Researchers at yourDictionary.com (YDC YDC yourDictionary.com YDC Youth for Development and Cooperation (Netherlands) ), the leading global language portal, today announced that a linguistic analysis of transcripts of both candidates' recent Florida-based remarks noted a significantly higher percentage in the use of passive voice than was found in speeches outside the state. Communications specialists believe that passive voice is widely used to shade meaning, or in political parlance Parlance - A concurrent language. ["Parallel Processing Structures: Languages, Schedules, and Performance Results", P.F. Reynolds, PhD Thesis, UT Austin 1979]. to `spin' particular subjects, since there is no readily identifiable `doer' of the action. When the candidates spoke to Florida audiences in the waning days of the campaign there was an increased reliance on passive voice, with Gore at 10% and Bush at 4%. Paul JJ Payack, President and CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. of yourDictionary.com noted, "When delivering their `vision' pitches, both candidates used no passive voice constructions. However, when addressing such topics as Social Security and Medicaid Medicaid, national health insurance program in the United States for low-income persons; established in 1965 with passage of the Social Security Amendments and now run by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. , Gore relied on the passive voice some 10% of the time, while Bush's use of the passive jumped to 6%." Earlier in the week, yourDictionary.com announced that in the final weekend of the Presidential campaign, Governor George W. Bush had eclipsed Vice President Al Gore Noun 1. Al Gore - Vice President of the United States under Bill Clinton (born in 1948) Albert Gore Jr., Gore in terms language usage as measured by reading grade level. This was a dramatic departure from YDC's analysis of the televised debates, where Gore was shown to have outscored Bush in each. Applying the widely used Flesch-Kincaide Reading Scale to a selection of the candidate's most recent statements, researchers at yourDictionary.com found that both Bush (9.9) and Gore (9.5) were speaking near the tenth grade Tenth grade is a year of education in many nations. United States The tenth grade is the tenth school year after kindergarten and is called Grade 10 in some regions. Students are usually 15–16 years old. level when delivering what could be called their `vision' speeches. The Bush-Gore debates, on the other hand, began and a 7th to 8th grade level and ended up at a 6th to-7th grade level. Gore's speech was found to be about half a grade level higher than Bush's throughout the debates. yourDictionary.com's earlier analyses found that the Nixon-Kennedy debates in 1960 set the modern standard with both Kennedy and Nixon scoring near the tenth grade level. Since that time the level of political discourse has steadily fallen with the exception of the Carter-Reagan debates of 1980, which averaged near the twelfth grade This article or section deals primarily with the United States and Canada and does not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please [ improve this article] or discuss the issue on the talk page. level. The culprits for the decline most frequently cited include the media, radio and television. About yourDictionary.com yourDictionary.com (YDC) provides the world's most comprehensive, and authoritative portal for language, and language-related products and services on the World Wide Web. To Arrange Interviews To arrange interviews, call Millie Lorenzo at 925/743-7700, or send E-mail to interviews@yourDictionary.com. YourDictionary.com's corporate headquarters are located at 145 Town & Country Drive, Danville, CA 94526. For more information, call 925/743-7700 or visit http://www.yourDictionary.com. Internet keyword: yourDictionary. Endangered Language An endangered language is a language with so few surviving speakers that it is in danger of falling out of use. If it loses all of its native speakers, it becomes an extinct language. Repository (1) A database of information about applications software that includes author, data elements, inputs, processes, outputs and interrelationships. A repository is used in a CASE or application development system in order to identify objects and business rules for reuse. , Dr. Language, & the Word Man copyright(c)2000 by yourDictionary.com, Inc. |
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