Trump's debate denials

As Geoff Pullum noted, in last night's presidential debate, many of Trump's interruptions of Clinton (or shall we say his "manterruptions") involved on-the-fly denials of what Clinton was saying. Geoff describes one such denial: "'Not!' he snapped at one point while she was talking, like a 9-year-old."

Let's go to the transcript:

CLINTON: Well, Donald, I know you live in your own reality, but that is not the facts. The facts are — I did say I hoped it would be a good deal, but when it was negotiated…

TRUMP: Not.

This style of "not!" got a lot of attention in the early '90s thanks to its popularization in Saturday Night Live's "Wayne's World" sketches and subsequent movie spinoffs. But, contra the Recency Illusion, Wayne and Garth didn't coin the "not!" retort. As early as 1992, Larry Horn was pointing out the history of what he calls "retro-NOT" predating SNL. (See "The Said and the Unsaid," Ohio State University Working Papers in Linguistics 40, July 1992, pp. 186-7.) Jesse Sheidlower and Jonathan Lighter continued the historical investigation in their 1993 paper in American Speech, "A Recent Coinage (Not!)." The latest OED entry for not reflects this research:

colloq.  [perhaps influenced by NIT adv.   (see J. T. Sheidlower and J. E. Lighter in Amer. Speech (1993)68 213–8). In later use, popularized by Mike Myers and Dana Carvey in the ‘Wayne's World’ sketches on the NBC television programme Saturday Night Live from 1989, and especially by the spin-off film Wayne's World in 1992.] Used humorously following a statement to indicate that it should not be taken seriously (usually because the idea expressed is untrue or unlikely to happen), or sarcastically to negate a statement made immediately before. Cf. I don't think at THINK v.² 11a(c). [1860   ‘G. Eliot’ Mill on Floss III. vi. vi. 90   She would make a sweet, strange, troublesome, adorable wife to some man or other, but he would never have chosen her himself. Did she feel as he did? He hoped she did—not.] 1888   Cincinnati Times-Star 26 July 2/2   Of course ‘White Wings’ was mourned because he was hissed. Yes he did—not!!! 1893   Princeton Tiger 30 Mar. 103   An Historical Parallel—Not. 1900   G. Ade More Fables 80   Probably they preferred to go back to the Front Room and hear some more about Woman's Destiny not. 1905   E. P. Butler Pigs is Pigs in Amer. Mag. Sept. 499   Oh, yes! ‘Mister Morehouse, two an' a quarter, plaze.’ ‘Cert'nly, me dear frind Flannery. Delighted!’Not! 1950   R. Stout In Best Families vii. 73   The cop..called, ‘Pull over to the curb.’ Flattered at the attention as any motorist would be, not, I obeyed. 1975   E. Wilson Twenties 323   Held up by cyclone at South Amboy—‘wicked little boy who kept jeering at us, “You'll get there tonight—not!”’ 1991   M. Myers et al. Wayne's World (film script, final revision) 89   Well, I'm having a good time so far..not. It sucks baby Rhino. 2000   F. Walker Power of Two in J. Adams et al. Girls' Night In 48   Vizza revelled in increasingly outlandish exclusives, revealing his broken heart. Yeah. Like he knew how it felt—not.

Elsewhere in the debate, another one of Trump's interrupting denials featured an abrupt switch of tenses:

CLINTON: Donald thinks that climate change is a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese. I think it’s real.

TRUMP: I did not. I did not. I do not say that.

CLINTON: I think science is real.

TRUMP: I do not say that.

Trump clearly did once tweet that the Chinese are responsible for "the concept of global warming," though he later claimed he was making a joke — see Politifact's assessment.

The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 6, 2012

So perhaps his self-repair to "I do not say that" was intended to distance himself from something he did say but can't admit he said.