Elocution is the study of formal speaking in
pronunciationPronunciation refers to the way a word or a language is spoken, or the manner in which someone utters a word. If one is said to have "correct pronunciation", then it refers to both within a particular dialect....
,
grammarIn linguistics, grammar is the set of structural rules that govern the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology, syntax, and phonology, often complemented by phonetics, semantics,...
, style, and
toneTone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning—that is, to distinguish or inflect words. All verbal languages use pitch to express emotional and other paralinguistic information, and to convey emphasis, contrast, and other such features in what is called...
.
History
In Western classical
rhetoricRhetoric is the art of discourse, an art that aims to improve the facility of speakers or writers who attempt to inform, persuade, or motivate particular audiences in specific situations. As a subject of formal study and a productive civic practice, rhetoric has played a central role in the Western...
, elocution was one of the five core disciplines of
pronunciationPronunciation refers to the way a word or a language is spoken, or the manner in which someone utters a word. If one is said to have "correct pronunciation", then it refers to both within a particular dialect....
, which was the art of delivering speeches. Orators were trained not only on proper
dictionDiction , in its original, primary meaning, refers to the writer's or the speaker's distinctive vocabulary choices and style of expression in a poem or story...
, but on the proper use of gestures, stance, and dress. (Another area of rhetoric,
elocutioElocutio is the term for the mastery of stylistic elements in Western classical rhetoric and comes from the Latin loqui, "to speak". Although today we associate the word elocution more with eloquent speaking, for the classical rhetorician it connoted "style".It is the third of the five canons of...
, was unrelated to
elocution and, instead, concerned the style of writing proper to discourse.)
Elocution emerged as a formal discipline during the eighteenth century. One of its important figures was Thomas Sheridan, actor and father of
Richard Brinsley SheridanRichard Brinsley Butler Sheridan was an Irish-born playwright and poet and long-term owner of the London Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. For thirty-two years he was also a Whig Member of the British House of Commons for Stafford , Westminster and Ilchester...
. Thomas Sheridan's lectures on elocution, collected in
Lectures on Elocution (1762) and his
Lectures on Reading (1775), provided directions for marking and reading aloud passages from literature. Another actor, John Walker, published his two-volume
Elements of Elocution in 1781, which provided detailed instruction on voice control, gestures, pronunciation, and emphasis.
With the publication of these works and similar ones, elocution gained wider public interest. While training on proper speaking had been an important part of private education for many centuries, the rise in the nineteenth century of a middle class in Western countries (and the corresponding rise of public education) led to great interest in the teaching of elocution, and it became a staple of the school curriculum. American students of elocution drew selections from what were popularly deemed, "Speakers". By the end of the century, several Speaker texts circulated throughout the United States, including McGuffey's
New Juvenile Speaker, the
Manual of Elocution and Reading, the
Star Speaker, and the popular
Delsarte Speaker. Some of these texts even included pictorial depictions of body movements and gestures to augment written descriptions.
Sample curriculum
An example of this can be seen in the Table of Contents of
McGuffey's New Sixth Eclectic ReaderMcGuffey Readers were a series of graded primers that were widely used as textbooks in American schools from the mid-19th century to the mid-20th century, and are still used today in some private schools and in homeschooling....
of 1857:
- Principles of Elocution
- I. Articulation
- II. Inflections
- III. Accent and Emphasis
- IV. Instructions for Reading Verse
- V. The Voice
- VI. Gesture
- New Sixth Reader. Exercises in Articulation
- Exercise I. — The Grotto of Antiparos
- Exercise II. — The Thunder Storm
- Exercise III. — Description of a Storm
- IV. Hymn to the Night-Wind
- V. — The Cataract of Lodore
- On Inflection
- VI. — Industry Necessary for the Orator
- VII. — The Old House Clock [etc.]
Other forms
- Homiletics
Homiletics , in theology the application of the general principles of rhetoric to the specific department of public preaching. The one who practices or studies homiletics is called a homilist....
, Christian rhetoric
- Pronuntiatio
Pronuntiatio was the discipline of delivering speeches in Western classical rhetoric. It is the one of five canons of classical rhetoric that concern the crafting and delivery of speeches. In literature the equivalent of ancient pronuntiatio is the recitation of epics Pronuntiatio was the...
, classical elocution
- Tajwid
Tajwīd is an Arabic word for elocution, meaning proper pronunciation during recitation, as well as recitation at a moderate speed. It is a set of rules which govern how the Qur'an should be read. It is derived from the triliteral root , meaning to make well, make better, or improve. It is...
, Qur'anic elocution
External links