“Well” and that personal touch

I recently read (well, listened to–thanks, Audible!) John McWhorter’s Words on the Move, which was excellent, as so many of his books are. One of his points really stuck with me and has come to mind several times when reading opinions: language over time tends from the formal to the personal. One of the ways this manifests is by using words as courtesy markers. He uses the example of the (perfectly grammatical) sentence: “Well, horses run fast.” If you were to diagram that or describe “well’s” role in the sentence, what would it be? The dictionary won’t help because you don’t mean, “Boy, those horses sure run fast in the proper manner.” “Well” is a way to soften the blow of or personalize the rest of the sentence; it signals to the hearer (or reader) that you’re about to let them in on some information. It’s as if the person asked why horses are not often eaten by wolves; well, you begin the explanation so as to not sound too condescending, horses run fast, so wolves aren’t likely to catch them. We do similar things with midwestern-style intro statements like, “Well, well, well, what have we here?” It’s a way to slide your audience comfortably into the rest of what you’re going to say. 

Justice Kagan (I know, I know, I can’t help myself) often uses these and other kinds of personalizing markers in her writing. It’s one of the things that make her writing feel so intimate and personal. For example, in her dissent in Andy Warhol Foundation for Visual Arts, Inc. v. Goldsmith, she does this a couple of times: “You might think that when Congress lists two different factors for consideration, it is because the two factors are, well, different.” “And if the majority somehow cannot see it–well, that’s what evidentiary records are for.” Even Justice Sotomayor gets in on it in footnote 22: “This ignores, well, pretty much the entire opinion.” “Well” in these three sentences means three different things. In the first, it’s a no-duh kind of observation; in the second, it’s the writer cutting herself off, as if she’s calming things down or sending them in a different direction; and in the third, it has a can-you-believe it kind of quality. 

So take this advice and use it well. I mean, well well.