Annotated Public Speech

Public speech makes grammar audible: a speaker names an audience, turns separate listeners into a collective we, and repeats structures so that an argument can be followed in real time. The short speech below is an original, rights-cleared text written for this guide. It uses contemporary standard Central Catalan and the formal but accessible register of a neighborhood assembly.

Complete speech: La biblioteca que volem

Veïnes i veïns, amigues i amics: gràcies per ser avui aquí. No ens hem reunit només per parlar d'un edifici; ens hem reunit per decidir quina mena de barri volem ser.

Volem una biblioteca on els infants descobreixin històries, on els joves puguin estudiar sense haver de consumir res i on la gent gran comparteixi la memòria del barri. Volem un espai que ens aculli, que ens escolti i que ens faci més lliures.

Qui pot dir que la cultura és un luxe? Qui pot acceptar que una porta tancada decideixi qui aprèn i qui queda fora? Nosaltres no ho acceptem.

Potser no podrem fer-ho tot demà, però avui sí que podem començar. Cuidem aquest projecte. Fem-lo nostre. Exigim que les institucions hi destinin els recursos necessaris i comprometem-nos a omplir-lo de vida.

Si avancem plegats, la biblioteca no serà només un lloc on anem: serà un lloc des d'on el barri avança. Obrim-ne les portes. Obrim també totes les possibilitats que hi ha al darrere.

This is the complete pedagogical text, not a quotation from a historical speaker. Its repetition is intentional: public language must be clear on first hearing, not merely elegant on rereading.

Idiomatic English translation

Neighbors, friends: thank you for being here today. We have not gathered merely to talk about a building; we have gathered to decide what kind of neighborhood we want to be.

We want a library where children discover stories, where young people can study without having to buy anything, and where older people share the neighborhood's memory. We want a space that welcomes us, listens to us, and makes us freer.

Who can say that culture is a luxury? Who can accept that a closed door should decide who learns and who is left outside? We do not accept that.

Perhaps we cannot do everything tomorrow, but today we can begin. Let us look after this project. Let us make it ours. Let us demand that the institutions allocate the necessary resources to it, and let us commit ourselves to filling it with life.

If we move forward together, the library will not merely be a place we go to: it will be a place from which the neighborhood moves forward. Let us open its doors. Let us also open all the possibilities beyond them.

The translation uses “let us” to expose a form that ordinary English often replaces with “we should.” Catalan marks this collective appeal directly with the first-person plural imperative.

Numbered annotations

1. Vocatives create the audience

The paired vocatives veïnes i veïns, amigues i amics are outside the clause: they identify those being addressed, and a colon marks the transition into the message. Gender doubling is common in contemporary institutional speech (formal), though it can become heavy if repeated at every turn. Alternatives include collective nouns such as veïnat “residents” and comunitat “community.” See inclusive style.

The diaeresis in veïnes is meaningful: it shows that eï belongs to separate syllables. English readers must not collapse it into one vowel.

2. The perfect connects the past action to now

Ens hem reunit is the present perfect: the gathering happened before the sentence, but its result—the audience assembled in the room—is current. A bare English past (“we gathered”) can be idiomatic in translation, but Catalan foregrounds the present situation. The weak pronoun ens is reflexive because the verb is reunir-se.

The corrective frame no... sinó... rejects one interpretation and replaces it. It gives a speech a clean argumentative hinge.

3. Anaphora and parallel relative clauses

Repeating volem at the start of successive sentences is anaphora. Inside the first sentence, three clauses repeat on: on els infants..., on els joves..., on la gent gran.... Grammatically, on treats the library as a setting; rhetorically, the three clauses distribute attention across generations.

The subjunctive forms pugui and se senti present desired properties of a not-yet-realized place. English has no visible mood change here.

4. Inclusive ens turns policy into relationship

In un espai que ens aculli, que ens escolti i que ens faci més lliures, the direct-object clitic ens means “us.” It appears before each finite verb because repeating it preserves the parallel rhythm and keeps each relative clause self-contained. Catalan can also coordinate the predicates under one clitic—un espai que ens aculli, escolti i faci més lliures—but that tighter structure gives the three actions less rhetorical weight.

5. Rhetorical questions expect alignment, not information

Qui pot dir...? and Qui pot acceptar...? are formally questions, but the speaker expects the answer “no one.” Their parallel wording invites the audience to reach that answer together. The clitic ho in no ho acceptem refers not to a masculine or feminine noun, but to the entire preceding proposition.

The imperfect subjunctive depengués places the objection at a hypothetical distance. A speech can use that distance to make a rejected claim sound even less acceptable.

6. Modality scales ambition realistically

Potser no podrem combines the possibility adverb potser with the future podrem. Catalan also allows potser no podem, with the indicative present. The contrastive però avui sí que then reinforces what is possible now; sí que is emphatic, not merely the one-word answer “yes.”

7. First-person plural imperatives invite collective action

Cuidem, fem, exigim, comprometem-nos, obrim are first-person plural imperatives: “let us...” Their forms coincide with the present subjunctive. With an affirmative imperative, an object or reflexive pronoun attaches after the verb: comprometem + ens becomes comprometem-nos; obrim + en becomes obrim-ne. This attachment is where English speakers most often lose the clitic.

8. The closing antithesis changes on into des d'on

The final contrast is not merely lexical. Un lloc on anem presents the library as a destination; un lloc des d'on el barri avança turns it into a point of departure. The preposition belongs before the relative adverb: des d'on, literally “from where.” The two imperatives Obrim... Obrim... close with another anaphora.

Read-aloud version

Read the vocatives slowly and pause at the colon. Give each repeated volem the same initial stress, but let the three on-clauses rise slightly until the last one. The rhetorical questions should rise early and then fall firmly; they are challenges, not requests for an answer. In the imperative sequence, separate the short units—Cuidem aquest projecte. / Fem-lo nostre.—before accelerating through the longer sentence.

In careful Central Catalan, unstressed o often reduces toward [u] and unstressed a/e toward schwa. (regional: Valencian) generally preserves more vowel distinctions in unstressed syllables; this affects sound, not the written grammar. The standard forms of the speech work throughout the Catalan-speaking territories. Plegats is widespread, while junts is an equally standard, slightly more neutral alternative.

Comprehension checks

1. What two interpretations of the meeting are contrasted in the opening?
2. Which three groups are included in the library's imagined future?
3. What proposition does ho recover in no ho acceptem?
4. Why does the speech use des d'on, rather than simply on, in its final contrast?
5. Find two sets of three parallel elements and explain what each set organizes.

Transformation exercises

1. Replace the gender-doubled opening with a collective vocative: Veïnat del barri, .... What changes stylistically?
2. Turn Hem de cuidar aquest projecte into a collective imperative. A natural answer is Cuidem aquest projecte.
3. Replace la biblioteca after obrim with the pronoun en: Obrim-ne les portes.
4. Rewrite Volem una biblioteca. Els joves hi poden estudiar as one sentence with on.
5. Make Potser no ho farem tot demà emphatically positive for today by adding però avui sí que....

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• Vocatives construct an audience; first-person plural forms construct a collective actor.
• Anaphora, parallel relative clauses, and rhetorical questions make an argument followable by ear.
• Desired properties favor the subjunctive, while potser can combine naturally with the indicative.
• Affirmative collective imperatives attach weak pronouns: fem-lo, comprometem-nos, obrim-ne.