- published: 11 Mar 2013
- views: 85302
Diction, pronounced (dic-shun) (Latin: dictionem (nom. dictio) "a saying, expression, word"), in its original, primary meaning, refers to the writer's or the speaker's distinctive vocabulary choices and style of expression in a poem or story. A secondary, common meaning of "diction" means the distinctiveness of speech, the art of speaking clearly so that each word is clearly heard and understood to its fullest complexity and extremity, and concerns pronunciation and tone, rather than word choice and style. This secondary sense is more precisely and commonly expressed with the term enunciation, or with its synonym articulation.
Diction has multiple concerns; register—words being either formal or informal in social context—is foremost. Literary diction analysis reveals how a passage establishes tone and characterization, e.g. a preponderance of verbs relating physical movement suggests an active character, while a preponderance of verbs relating states of mind portrays an introspective character. Diction also has an impact upon word choice and syntax.
I've been driving all night
Bathing in flourescent light
Of a western Tennessee gas station
With a pack of two-way action
I'm subsisting on a fraction
And I close my eyes and pretend
I'm on vacation
But the light bleeds through
And it's all green-blue
There goes my imagination
My return fills me with dread
Will my house plants be all dead
My significant be with another
I say ok where was I
But I can't repress a sigh
And I think I'm gonna
Yeah I think I'm gonna call my mother
Let the subject wander
To issues of blonde hair
Or something or other
Like a bad haircut
Or a glass of cold water
Some of the things
You wouldn't ordinarily thought a
Will all be lost if you let it in
Maybe I'll never ever feel it again
I've been driving all night
Bathing in fluorescent light
Of a western Tennessee gas station
With a pack of two-way action
I'm subsisting on a fraction
Of what used to be a sugar-free
Half-melted bag of Tastations
That hard candy sensation
It's sweeping the nation
And it
Puts my mind in traction
I'm subsisting on a fraction
And I close my eyes and pretend
I'm on vacation
But while it melts in my mouth
I'm still driving south
In a TV Nation
Like a bad haircut
Or a glass of cold water
Shouldn't I say what I really shouldn't oughta
You spend half a day in
Some of these places
Like a flash of white light
That's in front of our faces
A state of peristalsis or a parastatic stasis