LANGUAGE AND STYLE

„The medium is the message.” (Marshall MacLuhan)

Three main aspects Voice Style and vocabulary Rhetoric

Voice Rythm Speed Loudness Pitch Pause Different vocalisations Expressions such as „er”, „wow”

Rythm Speed Vary your speed according to the text (codes) Intensity and intonation (codes!) Avoid monotony Pause Interest and expectation Don’t fill the pauses

Voice quality, „loudness”, pitch Functions: emphasis,attention Comfort! Find your voice Express attitude to topic „My voice is me”. (Montágh)

Common problems of rythm and voice quality „Dynamic monotony” „Singing speech” Lack of emphasis Changing meaning by breaking the sentence at wrong points „A királynőt megölni nem kell félnetek jó lesz ha mindnyájan beleegyeztek én nem ellenzem. „

Breathing Physiological Speaking Posture! Practice!

Style Depends on gender and culture Women use - more „we” ( „I”) - exaggerating adjectives (fantastic, exciting, great) - personal intro phrases (I think) - conditionals - understatement

Central-Eastern European rhetoric relies more on „We” and communcal knowledge systems empty and exaggerating adjectives knowledge demonstration as opposed to evaluation the reader to infer hidden messages, conlusion

Words Denotation and connotation „the company exceeded the budget” Vs. „the company works with a planned deficit” Key feature: synonymy „ I’m confident, you’re insistent, he’s obstinate”

Shortcomings of style Culture and context dependent! Hungary: author-friendly English: listener-friendly Commonplaces The matter at hand is … As a matter of speaking … By and large … It all boils down to … We should put a time frame on it

Euphemism:misleading vs. softening „We can see the light at the end of the tunnel” Vs. „I should think over this problem if I were you.” Confusing images -good striving for a more picturesque language with problems „ In her embarrassment she felt like a fish on a hot tin roof.”

Active and passive structures lively style grammar and vocabulary nouns static verbsdynamic „After long reflection, his decision to confess was made.”vs. „ He reflected for ages and then finally decided to confess.”

„ camuflaged verbs” (to give a lecture) use active voice avoid conditionals and mitigators

Stimulate attention And that’s not all … But first you should know a few things Now – and this is most important … But there is one more thing you have to do You might be asking yourself … Fulfill your promises!

How to develop your style Strive for clarity, avoid uncertainty in content reference to assumed BGK cramming too much info into a given time frame multiple subordinations in sentences sidetracks „in brackets”.

Be concise „Words are like leaves; And where they most abund Much fruit of sense Beneath is rarely found.” (Alexander Pope)

„Amint azt az eddig leírtakban is aláhúztuk, és amint az a közelmúltban a Miskolci Egyetemen megrendezésre került konferencia felszólalásaiból is kiviláglott, az új termékek bevezetése vállalatainknál nem tűnik előnyben részesíthető alternatívának a jelenlegi időperiódusban.” „A Miskolci Egyetemen tartott konferencia hozzászólásai is alátámasztották: az új termékek bevezetése ma nem előnyös vállalatainknak.”

Do not: Use long and complicated sentences Use long and abstract words Lie or trick your audience Abuse cliches Use too many figures of speech Hum and haw. Keep silent. Talk about banal generalities