Sunday, March 22, 2015

Tone



I am an Anthropology major, and in my class we are currently studying linguistics and the reflection they have on the gender, ethnics and socioeconomic standards of people.  During the lecture I noticed a lot that seemed to relate back to our class and the presenting we are doing on Friday.  Starting with the presentation, we discussed report versus rapport, which sociolinguist Deborah Tannen studied and labeled as a gendered speech difference—but more importantly described the implications of both in official public speaking.  Rapport is a softer, more relationship and conversation oriented form of speech.  This is characterized by heightening tones at the end of a sentence, leaving your words more open to interpretation and less confrontational.  Rapport is more often than not a negative form of speech in presentations, and many public speaking classes actually try to teach away the heightening tones and instill reporting instead.  Report, claimed is a man-dominated form of speech, is characterized by the lowering of tones at the end of a sentence.  This is meant to exude finality and dominance and is the ideal form of speech for a presentation.  The finality and sureness has been shown to be more respected.  While I am not sure I necessarily buy into the female/male difference, I do agree that the lowering tones shows far more confidence in what you are saying.  It gave me a good insight to tone usage and will be helpful for me to keep in mind when I am practicing for my presentation.

No comments:

Post a Comment