Perfect Pitch: How Does a Word Mean?

How do we know what a word means? In many languages around the world, words can have entirely different meanings based on how the words are spoken -- including variables such as the stress on the word"s syllables and the tone of the pronunciation. If you happen to be speaking the Nuka language, for example, you may intend to say, "You look beautiful." But if your tone of voice is incorrect, what you're heard to say could be, "You look like the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford." Your whole evening could be ruined!

You may not think English is a language like Nuka, but to a surprising degree it is.  Believe it or not, the meaning of any English sentence does not only depend on the words with which the sentence is made. The stress placed on the words, much more than their dictionary definition, is the real source of what the sentence means. It’s easy to prove this. Just pick any sentence and repeat it several times, each time emphasizing different words. You’ll see the meaning radically change. 

For example, read the sentence below out loud. As you read it, make sure you don’t give extra stress to any of the words. Just keep your voice perfectly flat.

I have succeeded in whatever I started because I willed it. I never hesitated, which gave me an advantage over the rest of mankind.

Because none of the words were emphasized, the passions and viewpoint of the speaker weren’t really communicated.

Now read it again, this time emphasizing key words.

I have SUCCEEDED in whatever I started because I WILLED it. I NEVER hesitated, which gave me an advantage over the rest of mankind.

Notice how stressing the word “succeeded” dramatizes the sentence. It suggests there was a looming risk of failure. Emphasizing “willed” conjures up all the obstacles you overcame by strength of character alone. Putting stress on “never” references a struggle against hesitation and doubt. It even implies that the struggle may still be going on: if it weren’t, why would there be such energy placed on the word “never”?

If you know what you intend to say in a specific situation, you can practice variations of emphasis beforehand to get exactly the effect you want. But even if there’s no opportunity for preparation, any variation in emphasis is better than none at all. Monotony is always your worst enemy.

Besides the stress you give to words, you can also vary the pitch of your voice. Stress refers to loudness or softness. Pitch is a quality of tone. In conversation, the pitch of most people’s voices flows from high to low and back again. This is perfectly natural – yet when people are front of an audience, very often their voices dull and monotonous.

There are two principle reasons for this. First, the average person is tense or even frightened of any kind of public speaking. And this tends to flatten delivery. Second, they don’t even know that this is happening. So as with other elements of Perfect Pitch, the solution is to put yourself in conscious control of your voice rather than just letting it happen.

When you lapse into a monotonous pitch your voice may be high or low, but it will usually be one extreme or the other, and it will always be unvarying. If you’re paying attention to what voice is doing, you’ll be able to notice this happening. Remind yourself that this isn’t how you want to sound. Make a conscious decision to adjust your voice so that it sounds like who you really are.

The speed with which you talk is another important variable in how you’re understood. In corporate boardrooms of congressional hearings, for example, someone might say “ten million dollars” very fast, as it were an insignificant amount of money. But if someone says, “You stand to win tannin millllionnnn dollllarrrsss,” extending each syllable, it really sounds like a lot of money. The actual words may be virtually the same, but the message is very different.