We've long know that Suggs doesn't know what 'pontificate' means even though it's a fave of his, and he wheeled it out again in the final.

But I'd have thought he would know what 'articulate' means.

I'm surprised Zara didn't challenge him over that.

Why would she challenge him when she was looking to curry favour? She could hardly say so you don't know what articulate means can she? He's the one on the other side of the table who calls the shots; the other lot dance to his tune don't they?

Smart articulate people do use flowery language when it's needed. An articulate person has a good knowledge and understanding of how to communicate well.
I'm articulate and have fooled so many people that I am smarter, more knowledgable and capable than I actually am.

Generally I find that people who use 'flowery' language think they are fooling people who genuinely are articulate.

You know the type, they say 'yourself' instead of 'you' and 'myself' instead of 'me' just because they think it sounds better. It actually shows their complete lack of knowledge of the language they speak.

And don't get me started on 'basically'!

The whole point about being articualte is that you say what you mean and there is no room for misinterpretation by the receiver of the message.

Really depends on how you define "flowery". Perhaps its being (wrongly) used by some just to indicate proper grammar, a mild neutral accent, and use of very few idioms. Which of course ISN'T flowery, but can be incorrectly posed as snooty or pretentious.

Just using Zara as an example, she didn't appear to actually use a lot of three syllable words, buzzwords, or jargon. Or some other possible meanings... she didn't seem to slather on compliments or add in a lot of extraneous adjectives. So I certainly don't consider her speech to be all that flowery.

Mostly she just had good patter for her sales talks, with very few hesitations, and in the boardroom she was always able to steer conversations, and most importantly she knew when to sit back and NOT talk when a debate, a deliberation, or a decision was going her way.

Depends what your purpose is. Sir Humphrey Appleby was very articulate but his main pupose was often to be mispercieved, to obfuscate,conceal, confuse and hide. Its an ability to achieve what you want to verbally - which may or may not require clarity.A politician who said what he meant, committed himself to anything , or meant what he said, would fail quickly.

to paraphrase Lewis Carroll

"say what you mean" is quite different from "mean what you say"

http://quotations.about.com/od/moretypes/a/alice4.htm


------
aah, they don't have a command of the Queen's English like what we do.

and the thing is, Sir Alan liked blond Harry talking posh, well enough, and no mistake guvnor.