Overly Formal Diction

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RetroGamer87
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19 Oct 2013, 11:53 pm

GregCav wrote:

One thing that has been bothering my mind is your use of "lexicon" in the first sentence.
Lexicon:- a workbook or dictionary.

Lexicon is more fun to say than vocabulary

I try to only use sesquipedaliany around people I know can comprehend it. Even then I endeavor to put a measure of emotion into my banter.

If I get to verbose around people of limited education they quickly remind me that I'm just trying to show off.

hurtloam
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20 Oct 2013, 5:49 am

Yeah, me too. It really irritates me that the general popluation are too lazy to expand their vocabulary and I have to dumb down the way I talk. I didn't used to have a regional accent either, so I've had to train myself to speak like those around me to fit in. I still sound like I went to a private school though (even thought I didn't).

I hate how I don't belong anywhere. I'm too poor to fit in with posh people, but too educated to fit in with the everyday people I associate with and they think I'm stuck up (though I probably am a bit). I'm sick of pretending to be someone I'm not.

StarTrekker
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20 Oct 2013, 7:04 pm

GregCav wrote:

StarTrekker wrote:

I'm frequently told that my lexicon is too formal for standard conversational settings; my mother often asks if I "swallowed a dictionary" and my sister and her friends typically ask me to translate what I've said into layman's speech. I find it happens a lot more around people I don't know, as if I'm keeping them at a safe distance by using stiff, academic language that can in no way be misinterpreted. I've read these sorts of speech patterns in many fiction books about aspies, but I've never met another real one. Do any of you get accused of talking like walking dictionaries?

You're speech is more formal than any other I've ever met or read.

One thing that has been bothering my mind is your use of "lexicon" in the first sentence.
Lexicon:- a workbook or dictionary.

The second dictionary definition of lexicon however, is, "the vocabulary of a particular language, field, social class, person, etc." My lexicon is my vocabulary, the way in which I speak.

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StarTrekker
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20 Oct 2013, 7:07 pm

RetroGamer87 wrote:

GregCav wrote:

One thing that has been bothering my mind is your use of "lexicon" in the first sentence.
Lexicon:- a workbook or dictionary.

Lexicon is more fun to say than vocabulary

You just taught me a new word

One of my favourites is "verisimilitude". I learned it off Star Trek, but I've heard my English teacher use it before. I was thrilled to find someone else who knew what I was talking about!

GregCav
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20 Oct 2013, 9:44 pm

I might have to crack open the ol' dictionary again and give it thorough going over again, all these "new to me" words popping up. I can't have that. :lol:

Asperger96
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21 Oct 2013, 7:18 am

A fun experiment is to observe people's reaction in context of their qualifications.

For Example: Watch how a math teacher reacts to being corrected on grammar in contrast to an English Department Chair.

lostinlove
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21 Oct 2013, 8:26 am

AlphaNtu wrote:

I do the same thing that some others have mentioned, speaking very precisely. Most of my vocabulary comes from reading but I'll look up words I already know so I know exactly when to use it and when another word would be more exact. I never actively seek to learn new words, I just pick them up, here and there. I especially like words that have fallen out of use.

This pretty much sums me up too. I also love to use idioms and analogies and often get excited when I come across a new one. My son is 4 and has AS traits, though he's not been formally diagnosed and his teachers often say that he uses words well beyond his years.

JSBACHlover
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21 Oct 2013, 11:37 am

Adamantium wrote:

StarTrekker wrote:

I used to, but I very consciously modified my speech and then my writing style after uncomfortable realizations, both in high school and college, that my habitual modes of expression were alienating me from my community and damaging my grades.

Now, in casual speech, I am less precise and far less nuanced. If there are two words which might express an idea I wish to convey, I select the more common word, even if the other word carries a meaning more congruent with my own.

I have learned that short sentences are better. Three of them make a point more effectively than one sentence that confuses. This is true even if the longer sentence very precisely conveyed a thought. Brevity is the soul of wit.

My, like, spoken style, now--Whoa! That's a whole other thing.

I started out, you know, copying people. Like: carefully, you know?

Naturally, the selection of style is contingent on circumstances. A presentation to the senior partners requires a different tone than a chat in the hall.

I eat lunch at my desk everyday in order to avoid the cafeteria. Partly because I am just uncomfortable in that environment and partly because the sheer number of people to talk to becomes exhausting. The personae I have learned to work through are effective, but maintaing them is exhausting. Like, speaking that way, but, you know, the right way for the situation is one of the most tiring parts of it.

So, no, I don't get accused of talking like a dictionary. People are sometimes surprised, though, when they have only heard me speak in dumb-down casual mode and suddenly hear a small part of my very much larger rhetorical repertoire.

Yep. I've learned to speak "NT." But if I have to I turn on the Aspie-talk as a way to make any NT who thinks he can bully me to shut the **** up. I'm smarter than any NT jerk and if they are going to try to slap me down I am going to nuke them. NTs are all about power and domination in conversation. We Aspies are about Truth. So I despise any NT trying to tread on me since I see that as an affront against goodness and innocent striving for truth.

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21 Oct 2013, 12:31 pm

Growing up in West End Louisville aka "The Ghetto", I was called out on using big words and basically just being intelligent in general. Even my mom's friends would comment on how "proper" I was when speaking. After years of having to explain things to people, I started simplifying my vocabulary. What a mistake that was. >_>

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21 Oct 2013, 8:22 pm

ExceladonCity wrote:

Even my mom's friends would comment on how "proper" I was when speaking.

That happened to me too! My uncle came to visit from the ghetto and asked my dad why his kids spoke so "proper." My dad told him that I spoke more "proper" than my sister. I was about six years old, kind of embarrassed/confused and didn't know what to say.

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21 Oct 2013, 8:31 pm

My speech gets more formal if I am nervous or talking to someone that I don't really know. When I am with someone I trust deeply or if I am much more relaxed, my speech really relaxes as well. I did not think of this before but one poster said it and now I wonder if I do this too. But I am wondering if I subconsciously formalize my speech to keep people at a distance.

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daydreamer84
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21 Oct 2013, 11:01 pm

The word diction has two meanings (disregarding obsolete definitions):

diction
ˈdɪkʃ(ə)n/Submit
noun
1.
the choice and use of words and phrases in speech or writing.
"Wordsworth campaigned against exaggerated poetic diction"
synonyms: phraseology, phrasing, turn of phrase, choice of words, wording, language, parlance, usage, vocabulary, terminology, expression, idiom, style, locution; More
2.
the style of enunciation in speaking or singing.
"she began imitating his careful diction"
synonyms: enunciation, articulation, elocution, locution, pronunciation, speech, speech pattern, manner of speaking, intonation, inflection.
\LINK

I thought you were talking about over-enunciating words when I saw the post title. Actually though. my mum has criticized me for having overly formal diction both in terms of word choice and enunciation.

Last edited by daydreamer84 on 22 Oct 2013, 12:34 am, edited 1 time in total.

skibum
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22 Oct 2013, 12:24 am

Quote:

You just taught me a new word

One of my favourites is "verisimilitude". I learned it off Star Trek, but I've heard my English teacher use it before. I was thrilled to find someone else who knew what I was talking about!

For real? Haha

(Feeble attempt at humor!)

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RandyG
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22 Oct 2013, 1:49 am

I had that problem in my teens and twenties. Since I also had trouble pronouncing certain sounds people sometimes wondered if I were English or even German (I'm American).

I think I'm better, now, at tailoring my speech and writing to the audience. But since I mostly associate with an educated crowd I'm not aware of "dumbing it down" most of the time. I do have to remember who has and hasn't read Patrick O'Brian lest my ripostes elicit puzzled looks.

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