George Lakoff is a wordsmith, cognitive scientist, linguist, and advisor for politically liberal politicians and causes. On the accompanying handout, I listed a number of phrases that Lakoff recommends his audience (Democrats, people on the political left, members concerned about the public) should not use and some they should. Many of these phrases do not come directly from his talk, but from other books on the matter.

Your job is to attempt to explain the connotations of the phrases and why Lakoff recommends one phrase over another. In this sense the words he does not recommend suggest that they have negative connotations or don't align with liberal principles or aims, whereas the phrases he recommends have positive connotations or align with liberal principles or aims.

But moreover, unlike Luntz, Lakoff has two further claims.

First, he suggests two models for understanding how our ideas are shaped. The models rely upon the idea of family structures. One family structure, aligning with liberal causes, is the Nurturing Parent Model; the other, aligning with conservative causes, is the Strict Father Model. The reason Lakoff presents these models is relatively straightforward. In our development from children to adults, we begin to understand ideas of governancein our families first. We then tend to see how a state or federal government should govern its people based on how governance occurs as experienced in our family units.

Second, he suggests that the words and phrases we use to discuss issues go beyond simple connotation effects. Rather, phrases framehow we understand issues at all. See my examples below.

Feel free to add any other comments about Lakoff's talk, approach, or anything else.