Lately, I’ve
been giving some thought to changes in people’s speaking styles
in different situations. More specifically, changes in my own
speaking style.
I like to think that my style of speech never changes drastically in any situation. And in fact, it doesn’t. A few minor changes may occur, but “minor” is still the keyword. Regardless of the situation, I like to keep my style of speech consistent and relatively unaffected by changes in social setting.
If I had to describe my speaking style somehow, I’d say it’s largely similar to my writing style. You can feel free to draw your own conclusions from that. Either way, as may or may not have become evident, I happen to like long sentences, for instance. That goes for my speech as well as my writing. You might argue that I like long sentences too much, and in all fairness, you’d probably be right.
I also like words and phrases that sound less “conventional”. For instance, where most people would use the phrase “to be honest”, I like to use “in all honesty”. Or I might use “however” instead of “but”.
Most interestingly, though, when using comparative structures, I have an odd preference for describing a thing as “less than” another. Is that a sign of me being a pessimist? Possibly. I try to be optimistic, though, and for the most part, I dare say that I succeed. For the most part.
But that is another topic of discussion for another day.