Hi everyone
Health update below, but in the meantime, what about that Melania statement re. Epstein?! I was looking for some up-to-date examples of textual phenomena for a chapter I am revising for a second edition (see – I must be better – I’m working!) and I looked at the transcript of the first lady’s statement. Well, it’s got everything – three-part lists; interesting naming habits (the longest noun phrase is 28 words long, in a 30 word sentence!) and at least one example of equivalence (casual correspondence / My polite reply to her email / a trivial note) which seems to be over-cooking her denials.
But what stands out above all is the 24 (at least, depending on how you count them) examples of negating in a 547 word statement. It’s a lot of negation. Beautiful negation – her own negation. Here are a few (out of context):
- I do not object to their ignorance
- I reject their mean-spirited attempts to defame my reputation.
- I have never been friends with Epstein.
- I never had a relationship with Epstein or his accomplice, Maxwell.
- I am not Epstein’s victim.
- Epstein did not introduce me to Donald Trump.
And there are more, including morphological examples (baseless, unfounded) and semantic ones (stop, end). What Shakespeare understood and linguists have been explaining more recently is that the simple use of a negation brings into play cognitively not just the denial, but also the positive version of that denial. This affects the hearer/reader to the extent that they are grappling with the text (this didn’t happen) at the same time as having to visualise the opposite of that text (imagine it happening). This is not the same for non-negated texts. If you saw a sentence saying ‘Epstein introduced me to Donald Trump’, you would take it at face value and not concurrently imagine Epstein not introducing them. There is, therefore, a higher cognitive load with texts that negate things and when there is a whole slew (that’s a lovely word isn’t it?) of similar negations as there are here, the reader/hearer is more likely to wonder which version (positive or negative) of events actually took place.
I’ll be writing more about this for the chapter I’m revising, but if you want to read Melania’s statement itself, you can find it here:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/2026/04/first-lady-melania-trump-statement/
So – just to update you – I’m feeling pretty good on the whole and am having a lot of fun with grandchildren and seeing lots of friends as well as going to the allotment when the weather is fine. However, the new condition (dermato-myositis) which seems to have been triggered by the cancer or its treatment (no one knows) has left my proximal muscles (those close to the body) very weak, so that although I can more or less function normally, I have trouble with some very basic things (like turning over in bed!). I will be undergoing immunoglobulin infusion treatment soon, which I hope will get things back to normal quicker than the current cocktail of steroids and drugs. It’s more days (9 in total – 3 x 3 over 12 weeks) sitting with a drip in my hand, which is a bit of a pain, but if it works… Then I also have physio appointment to start rebuilding my muscles.
All in all, nearly a year on from the start of all this – I’m optimistic and more than ever grateful for the NHS and all its workers.
Lesley Jeffries 