CBC.ca Arts - Retired Czech leader Havel pens new play "Living in the world of political language was quite an inspiration" he said. "I try [in my play] to reflect the automatic political language, where you say one word to which other words are immediately added and the cluster [of words] then travels from one speech to another."

I'm not a big fan of Havel the playwright or Havel the "philosopher" but he's entitled to interesting insights just like anyone else and this is one. I don't have much hope that he will represent it as anything else than a 'politics is insincere' cliche but then few people have done a better job. What he reflects on seems to be a genuine phenomenon that is not limited to politics. Something similar is behind popular terms such as 'word of mouth', 'viral advertising', 'peer pressure', etc. One of the early descriptions of how certain patterns of speech spread was by Labov but he only focused on the social aspects of it. However, there seem to be a cognitive and textual dimension here, as well. Here are some questions to ask:

Q: What determines the ‘viral’ spread of some words over another?  Tentative answer: Some words are more amenable to auspicious blending, presenting the right balance balance of resonance with other cultural patterns and underdetermination to make them blend with a wide variety of other cultural frames. Q: Is the spread of cultural references automatic, unconscious or purposeful? Tentative answer:  Most of language is of necessity unconscious and automatic (how exactly is matter of less debate than it perhaps should be). There are even several folk theories about the power of language to influence thought and action that are often invoked (e.g. political correctness). However, much of linguistics/discursive/social consensus is negotiated in one way or another. Some of these ways of negotiation are possibly more entrenched (less volitional) than others but neglecting this aspect, I’m convinced, is to neglect something essential about language in all its dimensions.