There's one intellectual tool that can cut through much of the bunk likely to emerge from the 2016 presidential debates. It's not the much-discussed notion of on-the-spot fact-checking. Facts can be checked the next day. What's needed in real time is a linguistic skill — the ability to flag innuendo, strategic gaps, subtle non sequiturs and winks and nods, and, for those privileged to act as moderators, to ask follow-up questions that force the candidates to be explicit.
Linguistics professor Andrew Kehler is an expert in indirect communication, which people deploy for both honest and shady purposes. More specifically, he studies the differences between the literal meanings of statements and the way listeners interpret them. Such a gap exists in all languages, making complex discourse possible but also enabling speakers to mislead without literally lying. "We're always taking more information away from utterances than what is said, and we don't realize how we are manipulated this way," said Kehler.
He starts with a look at Donald Trump's slogan, "Make America Great Again." If you try to refute the statement by saying that Trump will not make America great again, you're implying an agreement with the notion that America is no longer great, said Kehler. But the slogan never explicitly states this. Alternatively, you can argue that America is great now — which doesn't get to the heart of the claim. To Kehler, the situation calls to mind an exchange in "Alice in Wonderland," in which the mad hatter asks Alice if she'd like more tea, and she replies that she can't have more because she hasn't had any. The hatter says if she hasn't had any, then she couldn't have less, but could have more.