From the Latin discourseus, a speech is a message that is delivered publicly. It is a communicative action whose purpose is to expose or transmit some type of information and, in general, to convince the listeners.
For example: «The governor seduced the employers with a very convincing speech», «Enough of the speeches: it is time to act», «The manager’s speech was received with little enthusiasm by the workers in the framework of the convention».
A speech is a message delivered publicly. According to Abbreviationfinder, SPCH stands for Speech.
Discourse in linguistics and philosophy
Notably, for linguistics, speech can be oral or written. This means that some texts can also be considered as speeches.
For philosophy, on the other hand, discourse is a system of ideas that is socially constructed. In this context, one can speak of the dominant discourse in reference to those representations that are imposed by the upper classes and that end up being accepted or shared by the majority of society.
Its use in politics
Discourses appear in very diverse fields. These messages are an essential part of political activity, since candidates in an election process, leaders and officials usually communicate with the population through speeches.
Let us suppose that a country is about to elect a new president: all the candidates will give various speeches during the campaign to communicate their proposals and seduce the voters.
There are different types of speech.
“The King’s Speech”, an acclaimed film
In this sense, it should be noted that two years ago an interesting film entitled The King’s Speech hit cinema screens around the world. Tom Hooper was the one who directed this production that managed to break the box office and obtain endless awards such as Oscar, BAFTA, Goyas or Golden Globes.
It tells us the true story of George VI (Colin Firth) who, after the abdication of his brother Henry VIII, became king of Great Britain and had to face a big problem: his stutter. This caused him situations of stress and great insecurity when making the speeches that, as monarch, he was obliged to undertake.
For this reason, he decided to put himself in the hands of speech therapist Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush) in order to overcome this defect. And he succeeded, yes, thanks to the experience of this professional who, of course, used a series of unusual and unorthodox but very effective techniques.
Since then and throughout the Second World War, the aforementioned speech therapist was always by the king’s side when making and preparing his speeches, such as the one he made in 1939 when Great Britain decided to declare war on Germany, which in At that time it was in the hands of the Nazi movement.
Presentation of products and thank you message
The speech is also used in the presentation of products or services. An entrepreneur, in this sense, can summon the press and give a speech to announce the creation of a new brand.
There are also the speeches of gratitude given by the writers who receive an award, the actors awarded at an event, etc. Among the most significant speeches of gratitude are thus those made by the interpreters when they receive an Oscar award, which have become one of the most interesting moments of said awards ceremony.
