If you’ve been following the news lately, you already know that US President Donald Trump currently has it in for Canada. He has even decided to rename Lake Ontario (shared by the US and Canada and bearing an indigenous name) ‘Lake America’, and increasingly uses language in efforts to put Canada down, such as referring to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney as ‘Governor Carney.’
A Canadian linguist, Sali Tagliamonte, has been exploring the linguistic patterns used by Trump in his discussions of Canada. She says that his word choices are calculated to assert dominance while, for their part, Canadian leaders are pushing back with emphatic language and terms that are not typically considered part of the language of diplomacy. Ontario Premier Doug Ford has referred to Trump as a ‘loser,’ ‘bully’ and ‘dictator,’ and invited him to kiss Ford’s ass.
On various occasions, we’ve used this blog to discuss animal communication. While animals don’t have language, as we do, many of them speak the language of asserting dominance and pushing back. Using words as well as body language, Trump and his colleagues, and their Canadian counterparts, are engaging in displays of dominance, threat, and counter-threat, that any primate would recognise.
Photo Source: https://unsplash.com/photos/flag-of-canada-ahHn48-zKWo
