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affected diction

Concept
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

Poetic diction marked by artificiality, excessive ornamentation, or pretentious vocabulary that draws attention to style over substance.

Detailed Definition
Deliberately artificial, mannered, or excessively refined word choice that draws attention to its own artificiality. This can serve satirical purposes, create specific tonal effects, or establish distance from natural speech. Affected diction might involve archaic words, euphemisms, circumlocutions, or pompous vocabulary. Poets may use it ironically to mock pretension or sincerely to create formal distance and elevation. When successful, affected diction becomes a stylistic choice serving the poem's themes; when unsuccessful, it merely sounds pretentious.
Example
Example in poetry:
Alexander Pope’s “The Rape of the Lock” uses affected diction like “the long labors of the toilet stand” to mock aristocratic vanity; Oscar Wilde’s “The Ballad of Reading Gaol” employs elevated diction (“each man kills the thing he loves”) for tragic irony; Victorian poets often used Latinate diction (“verdant,” “effulgent”) to signal refinement; affected diction can signal class, irony, or artificiality; contemporary example: Billy Collins parodies affected diction in “Litany” (“You are the bread and the knife...”); it contrasts with plainspoken or vernacular styles.
Additional Notes
Affected diction uses artificially elevated, archaic, or ornate language that may feel insincere or outdated; students should distinguish intentional stylistic choice from poor craftsmanship.
Also Known As
Artificial diction Stilted speech Affected style Cacozelia
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