Home › Glossary › Letter S

Sermocinatio

Rhetorical Devices
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

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

Sermocinatio is the insertion of imagined or reported speech in a poem or discourse. It lets a writer present another person's words, often to make a scene more vivid or persuasive.

Detailed Definition
Sermocinatio recreates speech by placing words in the mouth of a character, opponent, witness, or absent person. The speech may be quoted, invented, remembered, or only likely to have been spoken, but it is shaped to suit the speaker and situation. In poetry, this device breaks exposition into dramatic moments and allows contrasting attitudes to appear directly on the page. Poets use sermocinatio to animate narrative, sharpen irony, reveal social voices, and make an argument more persuasive by allowing readers to hear the words that inspire, challenge, or condemn the speaker.
Example
Example in poetry:
“The raven said, ‘Do not mourn me, poet, for I have stolen enough dawns’” invents speech for a character; “The old oak replied, ‘I have watched your family become leaves’” gives imagined dialogue to a tree; “The river told the child, ‘Carry no stone you cannot forgive’” creates a speech for a natural force; “The queen murmured, ‘My crown is heavier than my head’” supplies a dramatic utterance for an imagined speaker
Additional Notes
Sermocinatio allows a poet to stage speech within speech, whether the words are remembered, invented, paraphrased, or assigned to a character. It can make an abstract argument dramatic by letting competing voices speak. Quotation marks are optional in poetry, but shifts in diction, lineation, or address should help readers identify the voice. Compare dialogue, dramatic monologue, and prosopopoeia.
Also Known As
Imagined Dialogue Character Speech Dramatic Monologue
Skip to main content