Oratory and Speeches
The style of oratory and speeches constitutes the oral subdivision of publicistic style. In a public speech, direct contact with listeners enables the combination of lexical, syntactic and phonetic characteristics of both written and oral varieties of linguistic communication. In its key features, however, oratorical style belongs to the written variety of language, though it is modified by the oral form of the utterance and the use of gestures.
This style is evident in speeches on political and social problems of the day, in orations and addresses on solemn occasions, such as public weddings and jubilees, in sermons and debates, as well as in speeches of counsel and judges in courts of law. The main features of the style include the following:
- special vocatives and deictic expressions used in direct address to the audience (Your Worship, Mr. Chairman; you; with your permission; Mind!);
- special obligatory forms to open and end an oration (Ladies and Gentlemen; In the Name of God do your duty);
- words expressing the speaker’s personal opinion (I believe; I think; I’m confident that);
- wide use of repetitions (lexical and syntactic) as a means of focusing on the main points;
- frequent use of rhetoric questions;
- use of similes, epithets and sustained metaphors as a means of emphasizing ideas.
Exercises
Exercise 1.
Read the speech below, define its message and the main points the speaker wants to persuade his audience in. Answer the questions that follow the text.
Дата добавления: 2016-01-03; просмотров: 25; Мы поможем в написании вашей работы! |
Мы поможем в написании ваших работ!