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From Issue 1:
Seen but not Heard: by Dr Beverley Steffert Dialogue in films and TV drama is not a replica of natural speech. However, an understanding of natural speech styles will enable scriptwriters to convey more meaning with fewer words. It will also provide actors and actresses with dialogue that can be acted more expressively. To many writers dialogue in their scripts seems straightforward. They often claim that it is easier than structure and less complicated than deep character. But how much do we all take dialogue or speech for granted? What do script writers need to know about the hidden meanings of language and about the relationship between language, thought and speech? To find out how speech patterns reveal perceptions of status and emotions, Beverley Steffert, examines the emotional implications of speech styles. ‘Every time an Englishman opens his mouth…’ said an old and wise man of letters, ‘… he immediately alienates many other Englishmen.’ But the wise man was wrong if he thought that it was the accent alone that caused this unfortunate state of affairs. The effect is due as much to the emotional energy each person projects as their accent: raw, unrestrained vulgarity, hints of refined tact, or a controlled, give nothing away attitude. These are the determinants of other people’s responses to us and they happen within the first few sentences that we exchange. The timing of response and reply, the rate at which each synchronises their speed of speaking and their loudness or softness is as critical as pedigree, bank balance or looks. A speech style is a combination of all the vocal characteristics that makes one person’s voice different from another. Men have more in common with each other than with the opposite sex and similarly, women with women, no matter how close their opposite sex bond is. It is a fact that men and women have different speech styles as far as the emotional component of speech is concerned – the pitch, the pauses, the pacing and the timing. Women together tend to use a more involving, embracing speech style, while men together tend to use a more assertive, independent style. This fits with the assumptions of co-operativeness that women tend to have towards each other and the assumptions of competitiveness that men tend to have. At tender moments of course men can and do use the ‘involved’ speech style and women tend to use the non-involved style more when they are reassessing the relationship. When they both use the non-involvement style it is often because the relationship is drifting apart and each feels a lack of closeness and begins to emphasise their separate selves again. Every fluctuation of ‘I’ versus ‘we’ is echoed in the swing between the involved speech style and the independent speech style. CONT. in Issue 1. © Beverley Steffert 2001 Dr Steffert, author of Rhythms of
Love, and psychologist specialising in psycholinguistics, learning
difficulties and addictive behaviour, runs workshops on speech styles. For
further information, please contact
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