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Pedantic/"Overly Formal" Speech

HylianHylian Citizen, Mentor
I saw a thread about this on another forum and I thought I'd post a similar one here, since I find the prevalence of pedantic speech in people with ASD very interesting.

Has anyone here been told, or noticed, that you have "pedantic speech" (basically overly formal speech, which can include an "inappropriate" use of academic speech and an extensive vocabulary)? Have you talked like that since you were a child? Why do you believe you talk like that?

I have been told by others that I often have an overly formal way of talking and have an extensive vocabulary. I have talked like that since maybe around mid-childhood, because I took a liking to the "accuracy" of it, and I think that accuracy + the extra vocabulary helps me explain my thoughts better. I am normally not great at that, so being able to use words that are "overly specific" and to be more descriptive like that helps.
Do you have pedantic speech?
  1. Do you have pedantic speech?4 votes
    1. Yes
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    2. No
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  2. Have you talked like this since you were a child?4 votes
    1. Yes
      100.00%
    2. No
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Comments

  • verityverity Administrator, Citizen
    I can do. Not to sound sophisticated, simply that it is hard to get my thoughts in order and explain thing in a succinct way.

    I just received am email from a legal sectary and that was the most drawn out and formal sentence urging me to to contact them I have ever seen.
  • AmityAmity Administrator, Citizen
    Yes Ive talked like this since childhood:

    As a kid I attended elocution and speech and drama lessons, on top of broadening my range of vocabulary, it taught me to speak without any trace of my own regional accent. (not great for blending in lol)

    I had some speech challenges in my early years, stutter/stammer and the lessons helped with that, but at some point after I learned to read, I spent large chunks of my free time reading and my vocabulary exploded.

    I believe I speak this way because:
    I wasnt so much interacting with other children, except when we had shared interests and I became encyclopedia like on the topic, so my language acquisition and developing vocabulary were shaped through academic interests and not through colloquial peer related interactions.


  • I certainly tend to be like that.
  • HylianHylian Citizen, Mentor
    verity said:
    I can do. Not to sound sophisticated, simply that it is hard to get my thoughts in order and explain thing in a succinct way.

    I just received am email from a legal sectary and that was the most drawn out and formal sentence urging me to to contact them I have ever seen.
    Yeah, I don't do it to sound "sophisticated" either. Some people say I do, but it really just makes verbal/written communication easier for me.

    Also, the first definition I found online for "pedantic speech" was very... pedantic to say the least. It's funny. lol

    Amity said:
    Yes Ive talked like this since childhood:

    As a kid I attended elocution and speech and drama lessons, on top of broadening my range of vocabulary, it taught me to speak without any trace of my own regional accent. (not great for blending in lol)

    I had some speech challenges in my early years, stutter/stammer and the lessons helped with that, but at some point after I learned to read, I spent large chunks of my free time reading and my vocabulary exploded.

    I believe I speak this way because:
    I wasnt so much interacting with other children, except when we had shared interests and I became encyclopedia like on the topic, so my language acquisition and developing vocabulary were shaped through academic interests and not through colloquial peer related interactions.


    I also picked up my vocabulary and my way of talking from reading as a kid + looking at synonyms for words in thesaruses. Looking up stuff about my special interests also helped, because for some of them people always write the info in relatively "academic" speech, so it made it easier to pick up things like that.
  • HylianHylian Citizen, Mentor
    I certainly tend to be like that.
    Do you think that it helps you communicate with other people, or that it's just something you picked up?
  • I  think it's just how I am ,rather than a conscious attempt to  communicate better.
  • I didn't talk at all until I was about 4 years old.  However, within a few years after I finally did begin talking, I surged ahead of my peers in terms of vocabulary -- thanks mainly to tutoring by my parents, who highly valued education.  By the end of second grade, I was reading at a 5th grade level.

    I think I've always tended to use language more precisely than many people do.  This too was encouraged by my parents.
  • verityverity Administrator, Citizen
    I didn't talk at all until I was about 4 years old.  However, within a few years after I finally did begin talking, I surged ahead of my peers in terms of vocabulary -- thanks mainly to tutoring by my parents, who highly valued education.  By the end of second grade, I was reading at a 5th grade level.

    I think I've always tended to use language more precisely than many people do.  This too was encouraged by my parents.

    I think that is a good thing. Precise rather then verbose. I try to do that but don't always succeed.

    I find the modern use of "awesome" really odd. I can of see how a 50s surfer might call a large wave awesome, especially if they had recently been taught the word. It seems now that folk are using awesome not to express awe, or even the more contemporary synonym for cool, but as a bookending.

    Awe can be terrifying. Reverential fear and respect of something powerful would be much closer to the the original use.
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