Colloquial Language
• Conventions of dramatic language
• Conventions and Audience Expectations
• A play is to be seen
Colloquial language
• One very specialized use of figurative
language is that discovered in everyday
common speech; the vernacular or
colloquial language is of course written in
a “low” style
• Colloquial writings is that which uses this
language or ordinary speech; the
language is thus rude or unadorned
Conventions of Dramatic language
• It is a “given” assumption that certain kinds
of characters speak in certain ways, that is
, there are numerous conventions of
dramatic language. Fools always speak in
riddles, kings of war and honor, princesses
of virginity, etc.
Conventions of Dramatic language
• Each kind of play is itself a convention.
• And within each kind of play there are
always certain character relationships,
from master and servant to man and wife.
• Certain kinds of characters in certain kinds
of play must speak in certain kinds of
language
Conventions and Audience
expectations
• The expectations of the audience must be
fulfilled to some extent. This does not mean
simply that we want property restored to rightful
heir in the end of a play which has promised and
logically foreshadowed such an ending.
• Expectations apply to language as well.
• Audience expectations are, in effect, one of the
dramatist’s tools.
Conventions and Audience
expectations
• There is nothing more central to a play’s
characters than the ways in which they
speak.
• Language itself is a plurality of odes of
expression and the playwright really has
no excuse not to have characters of
different kinds easily talking in different
ways. This is a general rule.
Conventions and Audience
expectations
• Each kind of character is speaking in the
way in which the audience expects him to
speak.
• Conventions translate into audience
familiarity at every turn; we in the audience
expect linguistic conventions and are
disappointed if characters speak in the
“wrong” way.
A play is to be seen
• We have been examining some of the important
considerations bearing on the language of the
plays– which in general we study through the
medium of the printed word.
• In conclusion we should always remember that a
play is to be seen, that we must imagine, as
readers, precisely how certain speeches are
delivered on the stage.