The Economy of Voice and Gesture in English Oral Communication: The American Elocutionary Movement

The contribution focuses on the great value of 'delivery' in oral communication. Although elocution was sometimes declared a subject distinct from the study of rhetoric, classical rhetoric always considered 'delivery' as an important part of speech. In the American Elocutionists' writings, an important attempt was made to develop a 'science of speech': their manuals are a mine of information about reading and speaking skills, speech sounds, prosodic features, speech defects and speech correction.