ELOCUTION IN SCHOOLS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 82, 7 April 1925, Page 10

ELOCUTION IN SCHOOLS.

(By H. HEMUS).

A DOMINION TEXTBOOK. AN « ASIDE » TO SIR J. PARR.

"I hear thee speak of a better language and of an elocution textbook for Bchools. This last is of the highest importance, and whilst I am assured our trusty Auckland school inspectors may be relied upon to proceed warily, there are, of course, others. Astounding are the things said and taught about elocution, but I have met nothing so ludicrous or mischievous as the work of a New Zealander who claims "30 years' experience of public speaking from a cart-tail at a street corner to tin; Legislative Council of New Zealand." I mention this book ("Elocution and Public Speaking," by John RiggAndrews, Baty and Co., Ltd., Christchurch) because I know the suggestion has been seriously made that it be introduced into our public schools. That dreadful .possibility makes mc lift a weary head in protest. Really, the most casual examination should serve to convince any intelligent individual that the book is a positive stumbling-block, despite the. fact that several Southern newspapers gave it unqualified praise. Let the author speak for himself on tlifi one all-dominating factor of speech —its very lifegiver. I, of eouree, mean Inflection. Here are his first worda under that heading: "When we speak we not only pause at dift'erent parts of a sentence to make our meaning clear to our hearers, but we also accompany each pause by a certain inflection of the voice. This inflection is as necessary to the meaning of the sentence as the pause itself." Now, just whither are we tending, and by what process of vocal jugglery do we "accompany each pause by a certain inflection of the voice"? It is simply pure subliminal nonsense. Here is more of it: "The rising inflection is the upward turn given to the end of a word when we are Hearing a pause, and the falling inflection is the downward turn. When neither is used, but all the words are uttered in the same level manner, they are said lo be spoken in a monotone." Living Jingo! That man who is not here moved to the simultaneous utterance of all the objurgational phrases he ever heard had better get off here. "Sheer drivel!" is wholly inadequate; "Eibble babble!" is nearer; but ■we cannot stop an atom short of "rank blasphemy!" Here's a device without which you cannot sound a single letter of the alphabet or a single syllable—a device which is the primal element in- all emphasis, all accentuation, all modulation, and in our author's hands becomes merely a "turn given to the end of a word when we are nearing a pause." Expletives fail, that's all! And then that other wonderful dictum: "When words are uttered without inflection they are said to be spoken in a monotone." Know, Sir Oracle, it is' a physical impossibility either to utter words without inflection or to speak in a monotone. Yet it is but fair to say that later on Mr. Rigg re-defines inflection thus: "As a matter of fact, all our words, unless uttered in a monotone, slide either upwards or downwards; but we need not now concern ourselves with this fact, for it has little significance, except where a word is followed by a pause." Somewhat of a concession to the truth, ■but befogged with the previous monotone and pausation heresies. Well, now, on his essentially erroneous conception of inflection, the author superimposes a most tawdrily-elaborate structure. Inflections are prescribed in advance for every possible contingency. For example, "In a concluding scries of two pairs of noun 3, the first and fourth are down, the second and third up. Of three pairs, the second, third and sixth are down, the rest up." And in such wooden«and arbitrary fashion are the precious elusive speech units distributed without the slightest regard to the varying demands of individual words. Amid scores of ingenious paradoxes under this heading perhaps the following are the most strikingly humorous: "The student must be carefulin inflecting his words to avoid placing any spicial emphas*i3 on the inflection itself. The only time when there should be any on the inflected syllable of the word is when the word is emphasised as a whole. When the word inflected is a word of one syllable, there should be no emphasis on the inflection unless it is intended that the word itself be emphasised." Odd's life!' One would have thought that only Leacock would have opposed emphasis to its chief agent, inflection! I am afraid to ask your readers for much more patience, but, perforce, must quote two more paragraphs on the- subj ject of "pausing." "Of all forms of I expression, the. pause is probably the J most expressive; for it not only accom- ! panics all other forms of expression, and I gives full effect to them, but by itself emphasises the meaning of words. . . . When we speak to Unperson, or an audience, we use such pauses, either long or short, as may he necessary to impress the meaning of our words on the minds of those persons whom we address." We overlook the redundancy in the bewilderment of meeting a new phase of a previous difficulty. We were invited, you will remember, to "accompany each pause by a certain inflection of the voice," and we are now instructed that J the pause "accompanies all other forms ij of expression." We are willing enough, and credulous enough, heaven knows, but we feel like approaching a pause with no uncertain kind of inflection. Let us end it. "We also use such pauses to renew our supply of air; and if we are reciting to change, when necessary, the expression of our features." Good old sword of Damocockles! When wilt thou fall? Say, mister, that set of features which does not. change sympathetically with every scintilla of change in th« subject matter is allied to a faultj intelligence. That orator or reciter whe needs to make conscious changes of facia! expression should seek different employ ment.