Before a community of speech was considered to be of people that share similar linguistic rules. Now it is defines as mor than that. According to John Swales a community of speech is people that share functional rules that determine the appropriacy of utterances. A speech community is a community that shares knowledge of rules for the interpretation and conduct of speech. It is necessary to share comprises knowledge of its patterns of use, and knowledge of at least one form of speech.
Reasons to Separate the Two concepts
There are many reasons why a speech community cant make an alternative definition of discourse community unnecessary. The first reason is medium. More in terms of the implication of this literary activity, than in the trivial sense that “speech” would not be sufficient as an exclusive modifier! of communities who are often greatly engaged in writing. The second reason to separate these two concepts is the need of distinguishing a sociolinguistic grouping from a sociorhetorical one. In a sociolinguistic speech community the primary determinants of linguistic behavior are social. The communicative needs of the group tend to predominate in the maintenance and the development of its discoursal characteristics in a sociolinguistic speech community. The primary determinants of linguistic behavior are functional in a sociorhetorical discourse community because a discourse community is a group of people who come together to achieve objectives other than those of solidarity and socialization; even if they therefore occur later. In the development and
maintenance of its discoursal characteristics, the communicative needs of the goals tend to predominate in a discourse community. The third reason is that speech communities are centripetal in formation of society. On the other hand discourse communities are centrifugal. Members of a discourse community recruits by persuasion, training or relevant qualification, but members of a speech community inherit by birth, accident or adoption.
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