Nesting
Language Log: The nesting of clauses that lay in the sentence that Cheney said
I'm the guy who found the post that wrote of the veep, who pulled the trigger, that shot the round, that hit the Harry, . . .
"Well, ultimately, I'm the guy who pulled the trigger that fired the round that hit Harry."
When I heard Dick Cheney's admission to Brit Hume on FOX News, my first thought was: "Why is Cheney snowcloning 'The House That Jack Built'?" The nursery rhyme is a classic example of recursively nested relative clauses — indeed, the whole purpose of the rhyme seems to be to teach children how clause-nesting works in English. (Such cumulative ditties pop up in other languages as well.) The structural similarity is obvious:
This is the cat (that killed the rat (that ate the malt (that lay in the house (that Jack built)))).
I am the guy (who pulled the trigger (that fired the round (that hit Harry))).
A quick blog search finds that I'm far from the only one who had this reaction:
His first and most important sentence should have been I shot Harry. Not, "I pulled the trigger, that shot the round...that milked the cow. That lay in the house that Jack Built."
(Body Language Lady)
Comments
Surely the use of such a series of clauses is a way of indicating that whilst he set in motion a train of events that led, eventually, to an undesirable outcome, it was to be considered unforeseeable, and accidental, unfortunate and unintended. The train of events here, though, is short and entirely foreseeable, so it doesn't work too well. I suppose a casual listener might have more sympathy for Dick on hearing this version than a simple "I shot him."
Well, Mr. Cheney did not shoot the guy. All he did was pull the trigger, and nothing else. I wonder...on a subconcious level, does this crap even work?
The point of his phrasing was this: Cheney is media savvy. That sentence can not be edited into the sound bite "I shot Harry." It's as simple as that. He can for eternity deny ever having admitted he shot anyone, and no one can dredge up a bite in which he did. It's the same thing as Clinton saying he did not have sexual relations with that woman. It's all a matter of editing and knowing how to play your soundbites. ...she says as a person who works in television and puts frankenbites together on a daily basis.