Three speech techniques - parallelism

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In The Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense, author Suzette Haden Elgin states that charisma is not necessarily something with which you are born but something you can acquire.  Elgin was an applied psycholinguist and an associate professor of linguistics at San Diego State University, and published this book in 1980.

She gives three techniques to use in a speech which can make a person charismatic.  Charisma she defines as "the ability to make others believe you and want to do anything you ask of them." (Elgin 1980: 212)  The difference between coercion and charisma shows up in the response of Adlai Stevenson.  When complimented on a speech, he pointed out that "people often said what nice speeches he made, but that after John F. Kennedy's speeches they said, 'Let's march!' That is charisma." (p. 213)  

The three techniques, of which the first was used by none other than John F. Kennedy himself, are as follows:
1. Parallelism
2. The Unifying Metaphor
3. Culturally Loaded Vocabulary

Parallelism the epitome of the success of of John F. Kennedy's speeches.  He used the same language form for each item in the series, as the following example demonstrates, 
"I have a goal that will not be ignored, 
I have a plan that must not be forgotten. 
I have a vision that cannot be denied." (p. 223)
The sentences are written in stanzas to illustrate that the language form used here is "I have" which is repeated three times, producing a series.  Elgin (p.224) further points out that the word "forgotten" is a three-syllabic word, which serves to cut the monotony of the series.  You'll notice that "ignored" and "denied" are two-syllabic words.  (Forgotten what a syllable is?  Just say the word out loud and listen to where it naturally cuts, eg. for/got/ten)

Another example of parallelism would be, "Pick up your shoes, put away your socks, and turn off that television set." It is not the repetition of words but the language form which makes parallelism effective.  

Like music, it is often the melody we remember more than the lyrics.  And either we like the melody or we don't.  Often the content is secondary in importance in speeches.  It has to sound good to be good.  And parallelism promises to create that successful melody in your speech that will make others stand up and march.  Think of Martin Luther King's "I have a dream."  Who remembers what followed each phrase?  A march.  A peaceful one.

I am not saying that content is not important.  I wish merely to stress the importance of rhythm in a successfully delivered speech.  More on unifying metaphors tomorrow. 


Comments

Anonymous said…
You have a great topic ! you are an interesting person . God bless you !
April 5, 2010 at 11:34 AM
Inktaps said…
Thank you! I appreciate your feedback so much.
April 5, 2010 at 1:22 PM
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