Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Features Of Prepared Talk/Speech
- Grammatical Features
- Parallelism
- Phrase/clause/sentence(s) with similar grammatical structure
- Create strong, emphatic rhythm + stress key ideas
- e.g Earl Spencer (Princess Diana's Funeral): "I stand
before you today as the representative of a family in grief,
in a country in mourning, before a world in shock."
- "--of a family in grief" (=) "in
a country in mourning" (=)
"before a world in shock"
- Think: phonology, stress, syntax,
adverb, lexis, the power of three
- Progression from "family"
to "world" via parallelism
- EMPHATIC
- Repetition:
- Words/phrases/sentenses
- Think: the
-diplosis trio
- Anadiplosis
- A word/phrase at the end of a sentence or phrase is
repeated at the beginning of the next sentence or phrase.
- Mesodiplosis
- Repetition of the same word(s) in the
middle of successive sentences.
- Epanadiplosis
- Repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning and
end of a phrase, clause or sentence
- Think:
antimetabole
- Word/phrase in one clause/phrase repeated in
the opposite order in the next clause/phrase
- Think: triple
repetition
- e.g Tony
Blair:
"Education,
education,
education."
- Emphasis & Cohesion
- Contrast &
Antithesis
- CONTRAST: words &
phrases that contrast
in some way
- ANTITHESIS: words
involved have directly
opposite meanings
- Why? Rhythm & the transition
+ve to -ve or -ve to +ve always
emphasizes the latter!
- e.g Abraham Lincoln: "The brave men living and dead, who
struggled here, have consecrated far above our power to add or
detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say
here, but it can never forget what they did here.
- Think: contrast
pairs, living-dead;
add-detract;
little-long;
remember-forget;
what we say
here-what they did
there
- The power of three
- Memorable
rhythm
- e.g Winston
Churchill:
"--blood, toil,
tears and
sweat"
- Think:
modern
expression
"blood,
sweat &
tears"
- Interrogatives
(the Q&A)
- Way of involving the audience
& instigating emotion
- Question demands change in intonation
-> gives speech variety and dynamics
- Rhetorical questions
- Questions
answered by
the speaker
themselves
- e.g Tony Blair: "And
what has the government
done about it? Nothing!"
- Think: audience specificity
- Listing
- Reinforce an
idea/argument with
a cumulative effect
- Think: asyndetic
vs. syndetic listing
- SYNDETIC:
connected by
a conjunction
- e.g flock
and wheel
and cry.
- ASYNDETIC:
connected by a
comma instead
of a conjunction
- e.g flock,
wheel, and cry
- Sentence Length
- Usually short, direct & powerful
- Alt: long sentences that build to a climax
- Why important? Emphasis, structure, rhythm,
interest/comprehension of the audience
- Think: simple, compound, complex &
compound-complex sentence structures
- Use of 1st
Person Plural
- Create feeling of
unity & solidarity +
selflessness
- Relationship
between speaker
& audience
- Use of 2nd
Person Plural
- Involve audience by
addressing them directly
- Lexical Features
- Simple
Vocabulary
- Often monosyllabic
- Used in order to be
clear, direct & forceful
- Elaborate /
Elevated /
Professional
Vocabulary
- Adds solemnity and weight
- Make speech sound dramatic, uplifting etc.
- Attain credibility by (what appears to be)
professionalism - impression of certainty & drive
- Appeals to audience's
sense of rationality
- Emotive
Vocabulary
- Attain an emotional
reaction from the
audience
- e.g Winston Churchill during early
WWII: "Side by side, the British and
French peoples have advanced to
rescue not only Europe but mankind
from the foulest and most
soul-destroying tyranny which has
ever darkened and stained the pages
of history.
- Connect the audience to the
issue at hand by stirring up
own opinions, concepts,
memories etc.
- Think: "The manipulative tool."
- Think: "An invisible highlighter."
- Hyperbole
- The use of
exaggeration
- Used for emotive
effect or dramatic
impact
- e.g Neil Kinnock during the General Election of 1987:
"Why am I the first Kinnock in a thousand generations
to be able to get to university? Why is Glenys [his
wife] the first woman in her family in a thousand
generations to be able to get to university?"
- Figurative
Language
- Metaphors & Imagery
- e.g Martin Luther
King: "[the abolition of
slavery will be] a
joyous daybreak to
end the long night of
captivity" - "[black
Americans inhabited]
a lonely island of
poverty in the middle
of a vast ocean of
material prosperity."
- Similes
- Anecdotes
- Painting a carefully
constructed picture
with your words.
- Think: taking the
audience on a
journey -> making
it memorable!
- Evoking associations & personalizing the
speech to the specific audience, or the
specific speaker to build an own "style".
- Phonological Features
- Phonological Devices
- Alliteration
- Assonance
- Rhyme
- Rhythm
- Think
about the
effect of:
- Word length
- Sentence length
- Pauses
- Intonation
- Stress
- Articulation
- Volume
- Speeches you
should hear/read
- Kennedy Inauguration, John F. Kennedy , 1961
- Pericles’ Funeral Oration Pericles, 5th Century BC
- Freedom or Death Emmeline Pankhurst, 1913
- Urban II Speech at Clermont Pope Urban II, 1095
- The Pleasure of Books William Lyon Phelps, 1933
- Ain’t I A Woman? Sojourner Truth, 1851
- I Am The First Accused Nelson Mandela, 1964
- I Have A Dream Martin Luther King, 1963
- Gettysburg Address Abraham Lincoln, 1863
- We Shall Fight On The Beaches
Winston Churchill, 1940