Language
A collection of symbols governed by a variety of rules to convey messages between people
Abstraction Ladder: A range of more- to less-abstract terms describing an event or object.
Abstract Language: Language that lacks specificity or does not refer to observable behavior or sensory data.
Behavioral Description: An account that refers only to observable phenomena.
Divergence: A linguistic strategy in which speakers emphasize differences between their communicative style and others' in order to create distance.
Emotive Language: Language that conveys the sender's attitude rather then simply offering an objective description.
Relative Words: Words that gain their meaning by comparison.
Equivocation: A vague statement that can be interpreted in more than one way.
Euphemism: A pleasant-sounding term used in place of a more direct but less pleasant one.
Factual Statement: A statement that can be verified as being true or false.
Inferential Statement: A conclusion arrived at from an interpretation of evidence
Jargon: The specialized vocabulary that is used as a kind of shorthand by people with common background knowledge and experience.
Linguistic Intergroup Bias: The tendency to label people and behaviors in terms that reflect their in-group or out-group status.
Linguistic Relativism: A Moderate form of linguistic determinism that argues that language exerts a strong influence on the perceptions of the people who speak it.
Opinion Statement: A statement based on the speaker's beliefs
Semantic Rules: Rules that govern the meaning of language as opposed to it's structure.
Pragmatic Rules: Rules that govern how people use language in everyday interaction.
Convergence: Accommodating one's speaking style to another person, who usually is desirable or has higher status.
Phonological Rules: Linguistic rules governing how sounds are combined to form words.
Equivocal Words: Words that have more than one dictionary definition.
Sex Role: The social orientation that governs behavior, in contrast to a person's biological gender.
Slang: Language used by a group of people whose members belong to a similar coculture or other group.
Symbols: Arbitrary constructions that represent a communicator's thoughts.
Syntactic Rules: Rules that govern the ways in which symbols can be arranged as opposed to the meanings of those symbols.
Need to communicate slang and jargon with audience
Find a peer whose background differs significantly and doesn't understand your slang or jargon, and try to take steps back and find common ground.
Briefly explain some key words in speech to make sure audience doesn't get lost easily.
Powerful vs. Polite
Middle ground is best way to convey your message
Some points call for passion or more emotion than others
Finding balance between aggressive and passive
Abstractions - Can change the way your entire speech is perceived!!! (Low & High Level)
There was a lot to process in this chapter. For the most part, it broke down some key elements that often go overlooked in public speaking. Some of them being social norms, which can become very obscure and hard to cover. But here's so many useful tools to think over here it will be easy to transfer some cheat codes from chapter 5 into a powerful, successful speech of my own.
Vaughn Drewien