ABSTRACT
This chapter makes a simple but very important point; namely, that whatever else is involved in some lay accounts of current affairs they have a quasi-scientific dimension, in particular they exhibit a YESBUT logic.1 Popular newspaper language involves, for example, analyses of empirical instances, adjudications between competing empirical accounts, the formulation of theories based on empirical accounts, adjudications between competing theories, the derivation of policies from empirical/theoretical accounts, and adjudications between policies.
