Atti del IX Convegno dell’Associazione Italiana Scienze della Voce

31

MULTIMODAL RHETORIC. VERBAL, ACOUSTIC AND BODY

STRATEGIES IN A NICHI VENDOLA PUBLIC SPEECH

Paolo Bravi Conservatorio di Musica “G. P. Palestrina” – Cagliari / Università di Sassari

pa.bravi@tiscali.it

1. ABSTRACT

The discipline of rhetoric has been involved for centuries in the analysis of the verbal

means used by speakers and writers to give strength and efficacy to their discourse. In the

present paper, an approach based on the parallel analysis of three levels – words, prosody,

body/gestures – is proposed as being more adequate to the description of oratorical perfor-

mances. The results of an analysis carried out on a section of a public speech held by the

Italian politician Nichi Vendola are presented. In particular, the possibility of resorting to

concepts borrowed and adapted from musicology as a means for a synthetic description of

specific prosodic features in terms of prosodic devices is set out.

2. INTRODUCTION

The study of rhetoric, seen as the discipline devoted to the ars bene dicendi

(Quintilianus, Institutio Oratoria), has historically been more concerned with topics related

to the invention and construction of the discourse, rather than with the way in which it is

delivered to its audience (Plebe & Emanuele, 1988; Mortara Garavelli, 1988). Text has

largely overcome pragmatics, and the description of formal structures of argumentation and

phrase has gained more attention than the analysis of performance and delivery styles (Pe-

relman & Olbrechts-Tyteca, 1966 ed. or. 1958).

However, from the very beginnings of this time-honoured tradition of study, there has

been a clear awareness that the way in which the speaker gives his/her speech, is as im-

portant as what s/he actually says in terms of words, syntax, discourse strategies.

Hypókrisis, actio, pronuntiatio are terms that ancient rhetors (Greek and Latin) used to refer

to the modulation of voice, to gestures and movements of the speaker (Garver, 1994; Ken-

nedy, 1994). The possibilities offered by recording instruments and analysis instruments al-

low a deeper view inside this field and suggest that the whole discipline of rhetoric could

now be approached by taking into account all the acoustic and visual aspects of the delivery

of a discourse. As Beatrice Mortara Garavelli, the most important specialist of rhetoric stu-

dies in Italy, wrote, “[i] moderni mezzi di trasmissione dell’immagine, e non più soltanto

della voce, hanno indotto a riconsiderare la funzione comunicativa del gesto, della postura,

della mimica: tutte cose ben note agli psicologi e agli specialisti di cinesica, e oggi entrate a

far parte degli ‘elementi pertinenti’ negli studi pragmatici della comunicazione” (Mortara

Garavelli 1988: 285).

In the present analysis, rhetoric is regarded as an integrated complex of multimodal

strategies whose aim is to give a particular strength and effectiveness to the argumentation

in a public speech. In particular, I shall try to demonstrate that the analysis of the “acoustic

side” of the speech may gain advantage through analogies between prosody and music, and

that in the description of particular acoustic features of the speech, some concepts and ter-

minology

Paolo Bravi

minology of common use in musicological analysis can profitably be borrowed (Lortat-Jacob, 1998; Giannattasio, 2004).

In this paper, a section of a public speech given by the Italian politician Nichi Vendola has been analysed. Taken from a political meeting held in Milan, 2011, for the electoral campaign in support of Giuliano Pisapia as city mayor, the section of the speech is focused on the topic of ‘liberty’ and is clearly structured as a text with a parentetic purpose1.

3. ANALYSIS The analysis of the section of Nichi Vendola’s speech was carried out on three levels:

verbal, acoustic and the gestural one. Acoustic and visual data analysis were performed with Praat software (Boersma & Weenink, 2011) and Elan (Wittenburg, Brugman, Russel, Klassmann, & Sloetjes, 2006).

3.1. Text The section of the speech considered in the present analysis deals with the theme of li-

berty. The section is framed by two ovations: the former follows a part of the speech in which the main topic is the importance of culture, and the latter is prompted by the process of intensification in the part of the speech analysed here. It comprises 42 inter-pause-stretches (IPS). The verbal transcription of the text (no punctuation sign is added) is repor-ted here with each IPS progressively numbered: [N: 1] dobbiamo riprenderci la parola liber-tà [N: 2] per una ragione [N: 3] la libertà [N: 4] dei moderni [N: 5] è nata [N: 6] in contrap-posizione a un mondo di ingiustizie [N: 7] e di oscurantismo [N: 8] era [N: 9] lo [N: 10] voglio [N: 11] ripetere come un ritornello [N: 12] perché [N: 13] possiamo proprio scolpir-celo in testa [N: 14] era libertà [N: 15] dalla miseria [N: 16] era libertà [N: 17] dalla paura [N: 18] era libertà [N: 19] dalla precarietà [N: 20] era libertà dalla superstizione [N: 21] era libertà dall'ignoranza [N: 22] era la libertà [N: 23] che una giovane generazione poteva ave-re di spalancare le porte [N: 24] per guardare l'orizzonte del futuro [N: 25] la vostra libertà è un circuito commerciale [N: 26] è un supermercato [N: 27] è una sequenza di canali pub-blicitari [N: 28] è una libertà artificiale di plastica [N: 29] è una libertà senza contenuto [N: 30] è una libertà predatoria [N: 31] è una libertà della presunzione maschile [N: 32] è una libertà patrimoniale [N: 33] è la libertà dello stupro [N: 34] è la libertà dell'inquinamento [N: 35] è la libertà di privatizzare [N: 36] noi vogliamo una libertà responsabile [N: 37] è la libertà di abbracciare [N: 38] il genere umano [N: 39] è la libertà di darci calore e forza [N: 40] è un’altra libertà [N: 41] dobbiamo riprenderci [N: 42] la libertà.2

1 The video recording of the speech is available on YouTube, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vPd-SlmSrw, 8’37’’ from the start of the video. The prosodic features in the speech of politicians has gained the attention of a number of phone-ticians. For an introduction to the topic, see Savastano, Giannini, & Pettorino, 1995; Pettorino & Giannini, 1997. 2 Tr.: ‘[N: 1] we must reclaim the word liberty [N: 2] for one reason [N: 3] the liberty [N: 4] of the modern people [N: 5] was born [N: 6] as opposed to a world of injustice [N: 7] and obscurantism [N: 8] it was [N: 9/10] I want [N: 11] to repeat it as a refrain [N: 12] so that [N : 13] we can fix it firmly in our minds [N: 14] it was liberty [N: 15] from poverty [N: 16] it was liberty [N: 17] from fear [N: 18] it was liberty [N: 19] from uncertainty [N: 20] it was liberty from superstition [N: 21] it was liberty from ignorance [N: 22] it was liberty [N:

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Multimodal rhetoric. Verbal, acoustic and body strategies in a Nichi Vendola public speech

The word libertà (‘liberty’) is reported 22 times within a time span of 1’43’’ (less than once every 5 seconds on average). The word repetition affords a clear identification of the topic that the orator is investigating. The focus of the discourse is the different conception of the ideal (and the practice) of the right to ‘liberty’; what liberty means and what it sets us free from.

The word “libertà” is not only repeated individually, but as part of small sequences of words with the same (or similar) initial “word pattern” and a series of different conclusions. What from a formal viewpoint appears as a strong anaphoric series (see Figure 1), which can instill a sense of intensification in the public and an increase of the emotional tension, from a conceptual side, has the characteristics of the rhetoric device of the enumeratio.

F

igure 1. The anaphoric series in the Vendola speech may be seen as adjacent phrasescharacterized by the same initial word pattern and a number of different endings.

[N: 14] era [la] libertà [N: 15] dalla miseria[N: 17] dalla paura[N: 19] dalla precarietà[N: 20] dalla superstizione[N: 21] dall'ignoranza[N: 23] che una giovane generazione poteva avere di spalancare le porte [N: 24 ]per guardare l'orizzonte del futuro

[N: 25] la vostra libertà  è un circuito commerciale[N: 26] è un supermercato[N: 27] è una sequenza di canali pubblicitari[N: 28] è una [/la] libertà  artificiale di plastica

[N: 29] senza contenuto[N: 30] predatoria[N: 31] della presunzione maschile[N: 32] patrimoniale[N: 33] dello stupro[N: 34] dell'inquinamento[N: 35] di privatizzare

[N: 37] è la libertà  di abbracciare [N: 38] il genere umano[N: 39] di darci calore e forza

As Mortara Garavelli writes, “l’enumerazione è retoricamente marcata quando le inten-zioni comunicative, il contesto verbale, la situazione d’uso ecc. le attribuiscano efficacia argomentativa […] L’enumerazione come procedimento discorsivo corrisponde alla perce-zione analitica degli oggetti, opposta al ‘colpo d’occhio’ che coglie simultaneamente una totalità” (Mortara Garavelli, 1988, pp. 216-217).

What is within and behind the common use of the word liberty – an easy, effective and ready-to-use means in many political discourses from exponents of different political sides – is concisely, but effectively summed up here through short descriptions and metaphors.

23] that a younger generation might have to open wide the doors [N: 24] to look at the hori-zon of the future [N: 25] your liberty is a distribution network [N: 26] it is a supermarket [N: 27] it is a sequence of advertising channels [N: 28] it is an artificial, plastic liberty [N: 29 ] it is a liberty without content [N: 30] it is a predatory liberty [N: 31] it is a liberty of male presumption [N: 32] it is a patrimonial liberty [N: 33] it is the liberty of rape [N: 34] it is the liberty of pollution [N: 35] it is the liberty to privatize [N: 36] we want a responsible liberty [N: 37] it is the liberty to embrace [N: 38] mankind [N: 39] it is the liberty to give us warmth and strength [N: 40] it is another liberty [N: 41] we must reclaim [N: 42] liberty’.

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Paolo Bravi

The Vendola speech displays a clear structure based on a definite time patterning. In the first part, liberty is presented in its development as a political, economical and cultural con-cept in the modern era. In the central part, liberty is described as the present possibility of-fered to many to abuse their power, as mere appearance and false hope. In the end, a re-newed vision of liberty is proposed, with emphasis on positive values such as “warmth” and “embracement of mankind”.

Figure 2. Different views and practices related to the idea of liberty are presented according

to a three-faceted time patterning, regarding the past, present and hoped for future.

[…] [N: 3] the liberty [N: 4] of the modern people [N: 5] was born [N: 6] as opposed toa world of injustice [N: 7] and obscurantism […] it was liberty [N: 15] from poverty [N:16] it was liberty [N: 17] from fear [N: 18] it was liberty [N: 19] from uncertainty [N: 20]it was liberty from superstition [N: 21] it was liberty from ignorance [N: 22] it wasliberty [N: 23] that a younger generation might have to open wide the doors [N: 24] tolook at the horizon of the future

PAST

PRESENT

(would-be) FUTURE

[N: 25] your liberty is a distribution network [N: 26] it is a supermarket [N: 27] it is asequence of advertising channels [N: 28] it is an artificial, plastic liberty [N: 29 ] it is aliberty without content [N: 30] it is a predatory liberty [N: 31] it is a liberty of malepresumption [N: 32] it is a patrimonial liberty [N: 33] it is the liberty of rape [N: 34] it isthe liberty of pollution [N: 35] it is the liberty to privatize

[N: 36] we want a responsible liberty [N: 37] it is the liberty to embrace [N: 38]mankind [N: 39] it is the liberty to give us warmth and strength [N: 40] it is anotherliberty

If we take into account the whole section, framed by the boundaries of two strong ova-tions, we may see that the pattern based on the historic evolution (and the wished for previ-sion) of the meanings and of the practices related to the idea of liberty, is part of a more global structure in the form of a chiasm. The ‘entrance’ and ‘exit’ of the “liberty speech” comprise the exhortation “We must reclaim the [word] liberty”, and the three views of li-berty which build up the central and main part of the speech alternate positive and negative values in a rather symmetrical way (see Figure 3).

Figure 3. The global frame of the “liberty speech” has the structure of a chiasm.

EXHORTATION LIBERTY [+] LIBERTY [-] LIBERTY [+]

(past) (present) (would-befuture)

[IPS n. 1] dobbiamo riprenderci la parola libertà

[IPS n. 41] dobbiamo riprenderci [IPS n. 42] la libertà

EXHORTATION

3.2. Prosody In his delivery of the speech, Vendola shapes the prosody of the text in order to clearly

demonstrate the structure of this section of the speech and emphasize its message, thereby aiming at creating an atmosphere of cohesion with enthusiasm for his political party and its ideals. A coarse-grained analysis of the distribution of the pitch in the 42 IPSs (Figure 4) shows that there is a clear divide between a first part in which the pitch has a global des-cending trend (IPSs n. 1-24), and a second part characterized by a progressive ascending profile in the pitch distribution, which reaches its maximum at IPS n. 38 (“il genere uma-

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Multimodal rhetoric. Verbal, acoustic and body strategies in a Nichi Vendola public speech

no”, ‘mankind’) and is followed by a quick descent to a low pitch level in the last four IPSs3.

Figure 4. Boxplot of the pitch distributions in the 42 IPSs; different colours refer to the

identified sequence of sub-sections. Legend: “I”: preliminary exhortation (IPS n. 1); “int”: introductory section (IPS n. 2-7); “ant”: refrain anticipation (IPS n. 8-13); “libG”: liberty –

positive values (IPS n. 14-24 and n. 36-40); “libB”: liberty – negative values (IPS n. 25-35); “E”: Final exhortation (IPS n. 41-42).

100

200

300

400

01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42

IPS

F0 (H

z)

SECTION: I int ant libG1 libB libG2 E

Some concepts and terms borrowed from music analysis, and in particular from the analysis of melody, may be helpful in describing this kind of intonation pattern. One is that of the “linea profonda” (‘deep line’), regarding underlying directionality regardless of par-ticular and local melodic movement4. In this case, an ascending ‘deep line’ characterizes the section labelled in the graph as “libB”, i.e. the part where Vendola goes against the present idea of what liberty is (IPSs n. 25-35), and the first phrasal segments of the next section, where he talks about his idea of liberty. The progressive increase of F0 interrupts the trend characterizing the preceding sub-sections and brings about an emotional growth in the audience, which reaches its climax when the F0 reaches the top.

A second term borrowed from musicological analysis which can profitably be used to characterize the F0 evolution is that of ‘melodic jump’. The strong break between the sub- 3 The procedure adopted for the analysis is derived from Schirru, 1993. In this case, however, F0 distribution in the IPSs takes into account all values for each IPS and not the extreme ones (maxima and minima). F0 values have been computed through Praat (with default parameters apart from time step = 0.01, pitch ceiling = 500, voicing threshold = 0.6) with supervision (43 outliers, < 1% of the total, have been manually removed). 4 See De Natale, 1990, p. 26 ff. A crucial concept in music analysis based on Schenkerian principles is that of urlinie or ‘fundamental line’. According to this view, where music is regarded as directed movement in time (Cook, 1991, p. 62), every melodic motion in tonal music is to be viewed as a superficial expansion of a deep, underlining descending melodic movement from the Kopfton (‘primary tone’) – one triadic degree: third, fifth or eigth – to the tonic (cfr Forte & Gilbert, 1982, p. 131 ff; Drabkin, Pasticci, & Pozzi, 1999, p. 23-40).

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Paolo Bravi

section labelled as “libG” and the following one labelled as “libB”, corresponding to the conceptual contrast between a (positive) past and a (negative) present, is made clear to the audience and emphasized by means of a wide melodic jump of about a fifth (the medians of IPSs n. 24 and n. 25 are close to 150 Hz and 225 Hz respectively). The jump, in other words, acts as a springboard to enhance the impact and efficacy of the sub-section which is thereby set underway.

A second analysis of the F0 was carried out on the three main sub-sections of the speech, whereby Vendola describes opposite ideas of liberty (IPSs n. 14-40). Here, most phrases exhibit a structure with a clear and repetitive topic/comment division. The key word of the topic section is always “libertà” (‘liberty’). The central values taken at two par-ticular points of each IPS (the tonic vowels of the two key words of each phrase) were con-sidered: for instance, “era libertà dalla superstizione” (IPS n. 20) and “è la libertà dell’inquinamento” (IPS n. 39). The relative position of the two points may be seen in the plots in Figure 5. In the first section, all IPSs but the last, display a higher F0 in the final vowel of the word “libertà” than in the tonic vowel of the main word of the comment. This sequence is repeated five times, in a progressive descent. The pattern – which may be com-pared to a musical progression, i.e. a transposed repetition of a musical segment (cfr De Natale, 1990, p. 39) – is abandoned in the two following sub-sections, where the F0 in the key word of the comment is usually at a higher level with respect to the F0 in the vowel “libertà”. This is to underline the new information given in every segment and to emphas-ize the conflict between the positive sense conveyed by the word “liberty”, and the negative values expressed in the comment.

Figure 5. Upper panel: the smoothed F0 contours of two example IPSs. The thick line indi-

cates the two tonic vowels in the key words of the phrase. Lower panel: F0 values in the tonic vowels in the key words of the topic and the comment in the IPSs n. 14-40.

100

200

era libertà dalla superstizione

0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5

Freq

uenc

y (H

z)

Time (s)

300

400

è la libertà dell’ inquinamento

0 0.5 1 1.5 2

Freq

uenc

y (H

z)

Time (s)

15 20 25 30 35 40

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

IPS

Her

tz (m

ax v

alue

)

topiccomment

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Multimodal rhetoric. Verbal, acoustic and body strategies in a Nichi Vendola public speech

Further relevant aspects of Vendola’s prosody in his speech delivery regard the tempor-al dimension. Two features were taken into account under this respect, namely, articulation rate and speech fluency. As far as the articulation rate is concerned, we may see in Figure 6 that the rate varies from about 3 to 5.5 syllables/second. There is a high amount of variation in the data, but by fitting a smoothed line, an overall S-shaped trend line emerges, similar to that previously described for F0 changes On the whole, an initial descent is followed by an increase in the rate – especially high in the sub-section supra identified as “libB” (IPSs n. 25-35) – and a final slowing down.

Figure 6. The evolution of the articulation rate in the 42 IPSs of Vendola’s speech. The

points referring to the sub-sections described in the legend to Figure 4 are in different co-lours; a smoothed black line is fitted.

0 10 20 30 40

2.5

3.0

3.5

4.0

4.5

5.0

5.5

IPS index

Artic

ulat

ion

rate

(syl

l/sec

)

Although the articulation rate is rarely as precisely defined as time in a musical piece, we may refer to this phenomena in a (multimodal) rhetoric analysis by using the musical terms of accelerando and rallentando/ritardando. The main effect of an accelerando, both in music and in a speech delivery à la Vendola, is that of signalling the progress towards the main point of the speech (or the musical composition), stirring the audience and even-tually encouraging applause.

As far as speech fluency is concerned, the Henderson graph in Figure 7 once again dis-plays an S-shaped evolution over time (Henderson, Goldman-Eisler, & Skarbek, 1966). In the first sub-sections, the speech runs slowly: relatively long pauses break the verbal flow, characterized by very short utterances. Over the course of the sub-section labelled as “libG”, a quick trend inversion takes place. In the central part, the delivery becomes fluent, with very short pauses between one utterance and the following one. In the end, fluency re-turns to the initial pace, particularly due to a relatively long pause between the “libG” and “E” sub-sections.

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Paolo Bravi

Figure 7. A Henderson graph showing the evolution of speech fluency over time. Different

colours and relevant labels correspond to different sub-sections of the speech.

I int

ant

libG

libB

libGE

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 700

10

20

phonation time (sec)

paus

e tim

e (s

ec)

Some final remarks on the “acoustic side” of the speech regard its spectral features. The energy deployed by the orator is clearly variable over the course of the speech. However, the automatic device for recording level does not allow variation in terms of intensity to be measured. A more affordable measure of the strength the speaker puts in his voice is the spectral tilt, since it is well known that the slope of the spectrum is related to the energy deployed by the speaker. The plot in Figure 8 refers to the values of the slope of the regres-sion lines of each IPS and is quite akin to that of Figure 6 regarding the articulation rate. The smoothed line fitted (in black) is S-shaped in this case as well.

0 10 20 30 40

-0.5

5-0

.50

-0.4

5-0

.40

-0.3

5-0

.30

-0.2

5

IPS index

Spe

ctra

l tilt

Figure 8. The evolution of the spectral tilt, measured as the slope of the regression lines of the spectra of each IPS, during the speech. A smoothed black line is fitted.

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Multimodal rhetoric. Verbal, acoustic and body strategies in a Nichi Vendola public speech

We may refer to this kind of increase and decrease in voice strength using musical ter-minology, namely crescendo and decrescendo. An energy increase in this case is related to a stress on the content, and is aimed at thrilling the audience.

3.3. Body and gestures An analysis of the main features of body movements and gestures was carried out

adopting a multilevel annotation of the video file via Elan. We should first state that the last four IPSs were excluded from the analysis as the camera in the last part of the speech was directed towards the applauding audience, and therefore the speaker is not in frame. More-over, the quality of the video available on YouTube is not as good as one might have hoped, and does not afford a detailed analysis of micro or quick body movements and ges-tures, or of other paralinguistic acts, such as eye gaze and facial expression5.

As far as body positions and movements are concerned, it is notable that body move-ments act like punctuation signs within the speech. The “entrance” in the liberty speech chosen from the whole rally is characterized by a backward movement, with the speaker changing direction. Other syntactic and semantic boundaries, like that at IPS n. 3, where the theme of the “good” liberty of the past is dealt with, or that at IPS n. 9, where an aside in the discourse is provided, are indicated and emphasized by means of slight body rotation, respectively from front to a mid-left direction in the first case, and from front to mid-right in the second, see Figure 9), with regard to the position of the microphone and the au-dience. Not all these relatively small deviations from a position of stillness are meant to subdivide the speech according to syntactic and semantic needs, but changes in posture do seem to be directed and inspired not only by the speaker’s need to give his attention to dif-ferent parts of the public or to create some sort of dynamism in the delivery of the speech, but also to emphasize its own internal structure in terms of syntax and content.

Figure 9. Four body positions of the speaker, with respect to the audience and the position

of the microphone on the stage. From left to right: [1] right; [2] mid-right; [3] front; [4] mid-left direction.

A second notable aspect regarding body movements is how the speaker raises his body, probably either by standing on tiptoe or straightening his back. This frequent movement characterizes the key words at the end of the IPSs from n. 22 onwards. When the climax of the speech is about to be reached, the pitch accents on the main words at the end of the IPSs are highlighted by him raising his body.

As far as gestures are concerned, one can observe that all hand gestures pertain to the category of baton gestures, whose aim is to accompany the speech and highlight the struc-ture and boundaries of the phrases and their main constituents6. The only gesture that per-

5 A request for the video recording of the events made by other cameramen positioned in front of the stage was presented to the secretariat of the Milan’s elected mayor, Giuliano Pisapia, without success. The video recordings have not come to light so far. 6 “Col ritmo di questi movimenti il parlante divide in sintagmi le proprie frasi, o collabora coll’enfasi vocale nel focalizzare quelle parti della frase che a lui sembrano nuove dal punto

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Paolo Bravi

tains to a different category is the mimetic gesture that goes along with the words “spalan-care le porte” [‘to open wide the doors’, IPS n. 23] (Figure 10).

Figure 10. The mimetic gesture indicating the opening of the doors at IPS n. 23.

Baton gestures comprise, for the most part, an up-and-down movement of one (the right) or both fore-arms. The only exception occurs at IPS n. 31 (‘it is the liberty of male presumption’), where a horizontal oscillation of both arms (particularly the right one) rep-laces the usual up-and-down movements (see Figure 11).

Figure 11. Hand gestures involving one or both hands [row 1], up-and-down movement

[row 2], right-and-left movement [row 3].

In Vendola’s speech, gestures are characterized by different amplitude, quickness and stiffness of movements. Due to the low quality of the image, no precise measures of these factors have been attempted so far; however, a relation between prosody and gesture may be observed even without fine-grained analysis7, and an overall progressive intensification of tension clearly appears in parallel with the acoustic crescendo described in the preceding paragraph. In fact, fore-arm movements are sometimes wide, and correspond, with some

di vista informazionale o più importanti dal punto di vista retorico” (Poggi & Magno Cal-dognetto 1997: 153; see Efron, 1941; Ekman & Friesen, 1969; McNeill & Levy, 1982). 7 A detailed analysis of this kind could be afforded by a complete good quality video re-cording of the event, which, as stated in note 5, is not in my possession at the moment.

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Multimodal rhetoric. Verbal, acoustic and body strategies in a Nichi Vendola public speech

time inaccuracies, to the main accents of the phrases8. The most evident case is that of IPS n. 24, where a regular tri-accentual pattern gives the sentence a metric-like look (see Figure 12).

WH

S

* * *

Ictu

s

k k l k k k l k k k l k

IPS

n.

24 per guar- da- re l’o- riz- zon- te del fu- tu- ro

Figure 12. Syllables, ictuses and wide hand shaking (WHS) in the IPS n. 24 (“per guardare l’orizzonte del futuro”, ‘to look at the horizon of the future’). Rectangles display the co-

occurrence of gestures and accentual structure.

Finger configuration is not always clearly visible during the speech, but two principle positions occur, i.e. one with the “OK” sign, the other when the speaker’s fingers are banded together. In both cases, opening his hand, that is separating his fingers, occurs espe-cially at the end of the IPSs, and is used as a means to give emphasis and convey assertive-ness (see Figure 13).

Figure 13. Finger configuration and the final evolution of the gesture with the opening of

the hand: fingers clustered [row 1]; “OK” sign [row 2].

In some cases text, prosody and gestures co-operate in the creation of clear and effective communicative patterns. One example is that of IPSs n. 14-19, in which the same verbal, prosodic and gestural pattern is repeated three times. As Figure 14 shows, each pair of IPSs (n. 14-15, n. 16-17 and n. 18-19) is characterized not only by an anaphoric structure (as far as words are concerned) and by similar pitch profiles, but also by the same gestural “formu-la”, comprising the shaking of the right hand in the “OK” position in the first IPSs of each pair, and the opening of the “OK” in the second ones.

8 On the problem of the timing of baton gestures, see Nobe, 2000.

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Paolo Bravi

Figure 14. Multimodal formulas (IPSs n. 14-19). For each IPS, the higher part shows a

smoothed profile of the F0, the lower part, a two level annotation regarding hand gestures (upper tier) and body position and movement (second tier; the two lower tiers are not used

here). The square brackets highlight the repetition of the same formula for the three pairs of IPSs.

era libertà

ok_LS_Q-dx--mid-right-

34 34.5 35

IPS14

dalla miseria

ok_LS-dx--okO_S-dx--mid-right-

36 36.5 37

IPS15

era libertà

okO_S-dx-- ok_LS-dx--mid-right- front-

37.5 38

IPS16

dalla paura

okO_LS-dx--front-

39 39.5

IPS17

era libertà

ok_LS-dx--front-

40.5 41

IPS18

dalla precarietà

ok_LS-dx-- okO-dx--front-

41.5 42 42.5

IPS19

4. CONCLUSIONS Analyses of Vendola’s speech support the basic idea that rhetoric seen (and analysed) in

terms of textual devises (anaphoras, chiasms, etc.) covers just one aspect of the perform-ance of a speech delivery. The competence and the ability – and, as a consequence, the effi-cacy – of an orator in a public speech lies not only in his/her capabilities as a text composer, but also in his/her command of the communicative means that the body and gestures have.

In this respect, particular prosodic and kinetic patterns are present in Vendola’s speech, both in the field of prosody and in that of body and gesture behaviour. They act both as structuring means, which cooperate with the verbal dimension in highlighting crucial points of the argumentation, syntax structure, discourse segmentation and rhythm, and as a means capable of giving strength to the argumentation, expressing self-confidence, conviction, de-termination, communicating emotion, transmitting and inducing excitement and encourag-ing mass participation, cooperation and solidarity in view of a goal.

As far as prosodic devices are concerned, a “musicological” viewpoint may help to give a synthetic qualification of some particular patterns. Some concepts and terms commonly used in musicology – such as those of deep line, melodic jump, progression, crescendo, ac-celerando – with some adaptations with respect to their ordinary usage in the music field may be of use in defining some public speech performance strategies.

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