What is speech? The definition of the concept says that this is a historically established way of communication that obey strict rules. On the one hand, speech involves the pronunciation (reproduction) of thoughts with the help of certain constructions, and on the other hand, the perception and understanding of these constructions.
The concept of "speech" can be given another definition. This is a psycholinguistic process, which, in fact, is a form of language, a way of communication, the main feature that distinguishes humans from animals.
The process of thinking is inextricably linked with speech. The more clearly thought is thought out, the more accurately it is expressed, the more logical is a person’s thinking.
Both of these phenomena are characterized by such a property as conceptualism.
This property goes through two stages. The first, preconceptual, is formed in children at the very beginning of the development of thinking. Preconceptual thinking is egocentric, because the child is not able to perceive someone else’s position, is not able to connect causes and effects.
After five years, conceptual thinking is formed and, accordingly, conceptual speech.
One of the most important requirements is a wealth of speech, i.e. the variety and complete set of all language tools that a person uses.
Russian scholars distinguish between the variety of linguistic means used by a particular person and the breadth of the semantic content of speech.
The richness of speech in terms of the choice of language means implies:
- A variety of vocabulary. The wider the vocabulary of a person, the more accurate, brighter, more imaginative and intelligible his speech will be. Ellochka the ogre had a very limited supply. In the dictionary of Pushkin, there were more than 20 thousand words, and in Lenin - more than 30 thousand.
- The use of artistic means (proverbs, stable expressions, synonyms, polysemous words, etc.). It is they who give speech imagery, expressiveness.
- A variety of syntactic constructions. Little-educated people cannot afford to correctly build and use complex sentences, participles, comparisons, etc. But, using these constructions, you need to remember that there are strict rules that normalize the construction of such revolutions. Violation of these rules nullifies the richness of speech, emphasizes the speaker’s illiteracy.
- Proper intonation. A competent, cultured person should have a good command of intonation. With its help, you can calm, provoke, move to certain actions. A single phrase uttered with different intonations can have very different consequences.
- The richness of speech implies the ability to give speech the exact melody: pause in time, timely lower or raise the voice. A great example of competent intonation and good melody is the performance of modern preachers. Either raising their voices, now turning to a whisper, then becoming silent, they are able to introduce a large number of listeners into a trance.
- The clarity of speech, which means the correct pronunciation, the consistency of phrases, a clear construction of structures. Even a phrase that is competent in terms of construction can be incomprehensible if it is pronounced with "porridge in the mouth."
The richness of speech also implies its relevance. Each style requires the use of "their" vocabulary. In science, these are terms, in business speech - an abundance of cliches, sentences with participles. Conversation allows the use of, for example, incomplete sentences, expressive vocabulary, words with a "reduced" meaning.
A cultured person easily selects words in the right situation.
The richness of speech is, first of all, diversity. It is imperative to constantly expand your vocabulary, read a lot, find out the meaning of unfamiliar words and constantly enter them into your vocabulary. You should critically evaluate your speech, strive to speak in essence, concisely, but expressively, accurately and correctly. The wider the stock of words that the speaker speaks, the more accurate and brighter his intonation, the richer the speech, the easier, more imaginative and more accurate he can convey thoughts.