Language in Public Speaking

Language in Public Speaking

• Language is important • Meanings of words• Using language accurately• Using language clearly• Using language vividly• Using language appropriately

Language is important

• Kobe Bryant plays basketball good.

• The hurricane yesterday is a terrible disaster.

• You know? • Really?

Meanings of Words

• Denotative meaningDenotative meaning The literal or dictionary meaning

of a word or phrase. • Connotative meaning Connotative meaning The meaning suggested by the

associations or emotions triggered by a word or phrase.

Terrorists do not seek to negotiate with their opponents. They seek victory by using political and psychological pressure, including acts of violence that may endanger the lives of some people. To the terrorist, ultimate objectives are more important than the meanings used to achieve them.

Terrorists neither listen to reason nor engage in reasoning with others. Their aim is to generate fear – to frightenfrighten people into submissionsubmission. They measure success by the magnitude of the fear they generate through brutalbrutal, savagesavage acts of violenceviolence. Terrorists are prepared to kill to further whateverwhatever cause they claim to be pursuing. And the heinousness of these murdersmurders is accentuated by the fact that terrorists murdermurder without passion. They murdermurder with cool deliberation deliberation and deliberatedeliberate planning. They are utterly utterly amoral.

Meanings of words

• Which statement is preferable? • That depends on the audienceaudience, the

occasionoccasion, and the speaker’s purposepurpose.• Connotative meanings – Stir up the

listeners’ emotions. • Denotative meanings – Try to be

impartial on controversial issue.

Using Language Accurately

• The story of “-istic”– Elegant? Or Inaccurate?

“We are going to streamline our paperwork to make it more simplisticsimplistic. That’s the modernisticmodernistic way to do things. With less paperwork, we’ll have more time to devote to the magazine, and that will be impressionisticimpressionistic to management.

approve/admire/praise/respect 1. Everyone in the class decided it was

important to ___ each other’s right to voice her or his opinion.

2. Often the most encouraging thing you can do for a child is to ___ his or her creative efforts.

3. It is up to the manager to ___ the company’s new sales plan.

4. One cannot help but ___ the dedication of Olympic athletes who train for years to capture a gold medal.

Using Language Accurately

• Use familiar words When a pregnant mother consumes alcohol, the

ethanol in the bloodstream easily crosses the placenta from mother to child and invades the amniotic fluid.

When the expectant mother drinks, alcohol is absorbed into her bloodstream and distributed throughout her entire body.

Using Language Accurately

• Choose concrete wordsPhysical activity

SportsGolf

Professional golfTiger Woods

Using Language Accurately

• Eliminate Clutter prior to VS before

in the eventuality of VS if

at this point of time VS now

He is best known to people in this day and age.

He is best known today.

He never surrendered to anyone his dignity or his personal devotion to the Sioux way of life.

Using Language Vividly• Imagery • a. concrete words • b simile• c. metaphor• Rhythm• a. parallelism• b. repetition• c. alliteration• d. antithesis

Using Language Appropriately

• Appropriateness to the occasion• Appropriateness to the audience• Appropriateness to the topic• Appropriateness to the speaker

Exercises Arrange each of the sequences below in

order, from the most abstract word to the most concrete word.

1. housing complex, building, dining room, structure, apartment

2. Mona Lisa, art, painting, creative activity, portrait

3. automobile, vehicle, Ferrari, transportation, sports car

Exercises Rewrite each of the following sentences using

clear, familiar words.1. My employment objective is to attain a position of

maximum financial reward.

2. All professors at this school are expected to achieve high standards of excellence in their instructional duties.

3. In the eventuality of a fire, it is imperative that all persons evacuate the building without undue delay.

Identify the device(s) used in each statement.(metaphor, simile, parallelism, repetition,

alliteration, antithesis)1. “The vice presidency is the sand trap of American politics. It’s

near the prize, and designed to be limiting.”

2. “We should not demean our democracy with the politics of distraction, denial, and despair.”

3. “America is not like a blanket – one piece of unbroken cloth, the same color, the same texture, the same size. America is more like a quilt – many patches, many sizes, and woven and held together by a common thread.