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(Download PDF) Speech Science Primer Physiology Acoustics and Perception of Speech 6Th Edition PDF Full Chapter PDF
(Download PDF) Speech Science Primer Physiology Acoustics and Perception of Speech 6Th Edition PDF Full Chapter PDF
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All rights reserved. This book is protected by copyright. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or
by any means, including photocopying, or utilized by any information storage and retrieval system without
written permission from the copyright owner.
The publisher is not responsible (as a matter of product liability, negligence, or otherwise) for any injury resulting
from any material contained herein. This publication contains information relating to general principles of medical
care that should not be construed as specific instructions for individual patients. Manufacturers’ product
information and package inserts should be reviewed for current information, including contraindications, dosages,
and precautions.
Raphael, Lawrence J.
Speech science primer : physiology, acoustics, and perception of
speech / Lawrence J. Raphael, Gloria J. Borden, Katherine S. Harris. – 6th ed.
p. ; cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-60831-357-0
1. Speech. I. Borden, Gloria J. II. Harris, Katherine S. III. Title.
[DNLM: 1. Speech–physiology. 2. Speech Acoustics. 3. Speech
Perception. WV 501]
P95.B65 2011
612.7 8–dc22 2010041933
The publishers have made every effort to trace the copyright holders for borrowed material. If they have
inadvertently overlooked any, they will be pleased to make the necessary arrangements at the first opportunity.
To purchase additional copies of this book, call our customer service department at (800) 638-3030 or fax orders
to (301) 223-2320. International customers should call (301) 223-2300.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
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Preface
Ttheconstant
he purpose of this primer has remained they must be extremely receptive to changes
through six editions: to satisfy that make the text more interesting and eas-
need for a comprehensive but elemen- ier to read for beginning students. Thus, the
tary book on speech science that is easy to reader will find that many sections of the text
understand and that integrates material on have been rewritten for clarity. The reader
the production, acoustics, and perception of who is familiar with the earlier editions of the
speech. We hope that the popularity of the book will undoubtedly notice that the cur-
first five editions and the demand for a sixth rent edition contains a new, separate chap-
is an indication that we have been successful ter on the prosody, a topic which has been,
in meeting that need. perhaps, too long underemphasized in this
A primer in any discipline is, by nature, and other basic books dealing with speech
resistant to certain types of change. Because science.
it is intended to explicate fundamental con- As in the design of the previous edition,
cepts, it will not be likely to discuss either in- we have continued to present subject matter
formation that is too advanced for the begin- in shorter segments to allow readers to iden-
ning student or untested hypotheses, no mat- tify coherent units of information that were
ter how interesting or potentially influential not as evident when they were included in
such information or theories may be. More- longer chapters.
over, the resistance to change is dictated by Students will find information about nor-
the stability of the fundamental concepts and mal communication processes that will serve
data that the primer contains. Basic informa- as a basis for comparison with the disorders
tion concerning acoustics, the acoustic anal- that they will soon be treating in the clinic.
ysis of speech, speech anatomy and physi- Each chapter of the present edition includes
ology, and speech perception, although not a section on some potential clinical applica-
immutable, changes very slowly over time. tions of the material presented. These “Clin-
ical Notes’’ are not intended to be exhaus-
NEW TO THIS EDITION tive. Rather, we hope that they may stimu-
late readers to think about other ways that
Although primers may be resistant to the information in any chapter might be put
changes in basic information, by their nature to work in a clinical setting. The need for
iv
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Preface v
such information and the role of speech sci- discussion of instrumentation. Although we
ence in providing it will be made amply clear have placed most of the emphasis on the in-
throughout the text. struments and techniques that may be gener-
ally available to students in most college and
university laboratories, we also describe the
ORGANIZATION instruments and techniques that are found
in larger speech science laboratories as well,
Throughout the text we have tried to retain so that students will be familiar with them
the style of those sections that faculty and stu- when they study the research literature.
dents have found to be clear and easy to read, As we have suggested above, because this
and we have tried to improve the style of sec- book is a primer and serves as an introduc-
tions that some students and instructors have tion to a large body of information, we do
found to be less clear. We continue to pre- not presume to have covered every topic of
serve many of the classic illustrations from importance or to have dealt with the topics
the research literature in their original form included in depth. An updated selected bib-
because we think their presence increases the liography concludes each chapter, however,
value of the book. to encourage the student to pursue each sub-
With one exception, the organization of ject further and to fill in the necessary gaps.
the book remains as it was in previous edi- In an undergraduate course, the text may
tions. Section I now contains only one chap- be used as presented; in a graduate course,
ter, intended to set speech in the larger frame- many of the references might be added as
work of language and thought. The chapter required readings.
on the Pioneers in Speech Science, formerly
in Section I, has been relocated. It is now the
first chapter of Section V, the section that ANCILLARIES
treats instrumentation. Because many of the
accomplishments of the pioneers described We have revised and expanded the selection
in the chapter centered on the development of audio illustrations that can be accessed
and innovative use of instruments for the through the World Wide Web. These audio
study of speech, we feel that it provides a illustrations are referenced in the text: wher-
useful introduction to the description and use ever the reader sees the marker in the mar-
of modern instrumentation in the final two gin, he or she will be able to hear the sounds
chapters of the book. . being described by going online to the book’s
Section II (Chapter 2) contains a discus- Web site. We trust that the updated version
sion of basic acoustics, the foundation on of the audio illustrations will make the book
which the structure of speech science is built. substantially more useful and informative.
Section III (Chapters 3 through 8) deals with Words about sounds are severely limited in
speech acoustics and speech production. The how much they can convey. Technology has
new chapter on prosody is in this section. allowed us to move beyond printed words
We have attempted to integrate physiology so that the Speech Science Primer is no longer
and acoustics, as we have found that the analogous to a book about art history that
physiology of speech production is better un- contains no illustrations of the art being dis-
derstood and remembered when the sound- cussed.
producing mechanisms and processes are Instructors can also access PowerPoint
closely associated with the acoustic output. slides and chapter outlines as aids to the
Section IV (Chapters 9 to 11) treats speech planning and presentation of the material in-
perception, including material on hearing, cluded in the book.
acoustic cues, and models of speech percep- The primary audience to whom this
tion. Section V, as noted above, contains our text is addressed consists of students of
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vi Preface
speech and language pathology and audiol- although many of its components have been
ogy. The book will also be of interest to stu- studied for centuries. Acoustics has long
dents of medicine, psychology, education, been an aspect of physics and engineering,
and linguistics, as each of these disciplines speech physiology a part of biology, speech
includes some aspects of the material that perception an outgrowth of both biology and
we have presented. Moreover, the text pro- sensory psychology, and speech in its rela-
vides an opportunity for students in other tion to language in general has long been
disciplines to obtain a comprehensive view of included in the study of phonetics and lin-
speech science. Although this book is clearly guistics. This book embraces each of these
introductory, it can also serve as a gradu- components and attempts to integrate them
ate text for students who never had a sur- into a unified treatment.
vey course in speech science as undergradu-
ates. Lawrence J. Raphael
It is only relatively recently that speech Gloria J. Borden
science has emerged as a unified discipline, Katherine S. Harris
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Acknowledgments
Tmerous
he comments and suggestions made by speech perception are viewed as natural com-
many colleagues and students (too nu- plements of one another.
to mention here) who have used this Several people have been of great as-
book in class have been most helpful in its sistance in locating and supplying sound
revision. There is no greater corrective to recordings for use on the Web site that ac-
the mistaken idea that one has written a sen- companies this book. We thank Fredericka
tence or a paragraph as clearly as possible Bell-Berti of St. Johns University, New York;
than the puzzled question of a student who Winifred Strange and James Jenkins, for-
asks what that sentence or paragraph might merly of the Graduate Center of the City
mean. University of New York; Valeriy Shafiro of
The glossary remains largely the work Rush University Medical Center, Chicago;
of Jolie Bookspan, whose efforts in compil- and Alice Faber of Haskins Laboratories,
ing it continue to enrich the text for future New Haven. Without their help, our inven-
students. Throughout the process of revis- tory of audio samples would be far less ex-
ing the text for the fifth and sixth editions, tensive.
the first author received support from Adel- Thank you also to those who helped
phi University in the form of the access to us create the PowerPoint slides: Laura L.
laboratory and computing facilities and from Koenig, Ph.D., Long Island University and
the encouragement and interest of the fac- Senior Scientist at Haskins Laboratories, and
ulty of the Department of Communication Nassima Abdelli-Beruh, Ph.D., C. W. Post
Sciences and Disorders of the School of Ed- Campus of Long Island University.
ucation. We also thank the Ph.D. Program We are grateful to our spouses, chil-
in Speech-Language-Hearing Science of the dren, and grandchildren for cheering us on:
City University of New York for the use of to John, Becky, Julie, Tom, and Sam Bor-
its facilities. We probably would not have den; to George, Maud (White), and Louise
written the text in its present form had we Harris; and to Carolyn Raphael, Melissa,
not had the common experience of work- Frank, Andrew, and Gabriel Zinzi, David,
ing at Haskins Laboratories in New Haven, Nina, and Nathan Raphael. Finally, our
where researches in speech production and many questions have been answered with
vii
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viii Acknowledgments
patience by the editor for the first edition, plied for the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth
Ruby Richardson, the editor for the second editions by our managing editors, Linda Na-
edition, William R. Hensyl, the editor for pora and Andrea Klingler, Tiffany Piper,
the third edition, John P. Butler, the editors and Kristin Royer were of value beyond
for the fourth edition, John Butler and Tim measure. We thank them all.
Julet, the editors for the fifth edition, Pamela
Lappies and Peter Sabatini, and, finally, the Lawrence J. Raphael
editor for this edition, Peter Sabatini. The Gloria J. Borden
guidance, advice, and encouragement sup- Katherine S. Harris
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Contents
SEC T I O N I Introduction 1
CHAPTER 1 Speech, Language, and Thought 2
SEC T I O N I I Acoustics 16
CHAPTER 2 Acoustics 17
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x Contents
CHAPTER 13 Research Tools for the Study of Acoustic Analysis and Speech Perception 270
CHAPTER 14 Research Tools in Speech Science for the Study of Speech Physiology 287
APPENDIX B Nerves Important for Speech and Hearing: Cranial and Spinal 308
GLOSSARY 309
INDEX 326
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SECTION I Introduction
1
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This book is about speech. It is about spoken various conditions within and across species.
English in particular. It is not about language For instance, a dog will growl and bare its
or thought. But before we isolate speech and teeth to keep an intruder from entering its ter-
consider it separately from thought and lan- ritory. Or a female ape will assume a sexually
guage, we need to recognize that speech is submissive and presumably inviting posture
the most common way in which we express to indicate that she is willing to mate with
our thoughts and that when we do so, we a male ape. Presumably, communications of
organize our speech by using the rules of this sort reflect thought, but the thoughts are
language. If we were to study wine grapes not expressed in speech and the forms of the
without mentioning vineyards, it would be a messages are not determined by the rules of
little like the study of speech with no recog- language.
nition of its origins in thought and language. Humans also use many other methods
We also need to recognize that speech is of communication that are not classified
only one of the ways in which humans com- as speech. We signal to others by wav-
municate with each other. It is unique to ing flags, by sending messages in Morse
humans. Code, by raising an eyebrow, by sending
The animal kingdom offer many exam- e-mail and text messages, by writing blogs,
ples of nonlinguistic signs that communicate by playing musical instruments, by putting
2
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which have never been uttered by a speaker It is our knowledge of a creative communi-
or heard by a listener. Our knowledge of En- cation system, and that knowledge is in our
glish permits us to say and understand some- minds. How is language related to speech?
thing as prosaic as, “I have a headache.” This Noam Chomsky has called this knowledge
sentence has undoubtedly been said many of language linguistic competence to distinguish it
times, but our language also permits us to say from the use of language, linguistic performance.
and understand something completely new, Speech, then, is one of the ways in which
something we have never heard said before, we use language; it is the conversion of lan-
such as the following passage. guage to sound. There are, however, other
Speech–language pathologists and audi- modes of communication into which we can
ologists are trained to provide therapy for convert language. American Sign Language
people who have communication disorders. (Ameslan or ASL), used by the deaf, is an
Sometimes these disorders prevent people example of gestural language.
from producing speech normally; sometimes The syntactic rules of ASL differ from
the problems prevent listeners from under- those of English. Word order is often de-
standing hearing a spoken message. Provid- termined by the chronology of events or by
ing therapy for either type of disorder re- emphasized words. For example, in ASL one
quires professional training in more than one would sign “Sun this morning. I saw. Beau-
specialty and, on occasion, may demand the tiful.” rather than “It was a beautiful sun
services of more than one type of therapist. I saw this morning.” If the word “movies”
Whether we hear these sentences read should have the greatest emphasis in “I like
aloud or read them from the printed page, the movies,” an Ameslan user indicates that
we can understand them, even though have by signing “Movies I like,” with the most
never heard them before, because we share stressed word appearing at the end of the
with the author the knowledge of the rules sentence.
of English. The rules of semantics enable us The semantic rules are also different
to associate words or phrases with mean- from those of English because the ASL user
ings. We and the author have a common associates meanings with signs made by the
understanding of words such as “therapy” hands, face, and arms. The shape of hands
and “disorder.” The rules of syntax enable us making the sign, their movements or how the
to have common expectations of word or- movements change, and their position rela-
der. When we read “Speech language pathol- tive to the rest of the body are all meaningful.
ogists and audiologists,” we realize recog- Again, in the case of ASL, one’s competence
nize the phrase as the potential subject of (knowledge of the system) can be called lan-
the first sentence and so expect a verb to guage, in contrast to the use of it—the physi-
follow. When the verb “are” appeared af- cal production of gestures or signs—which is
ter the end of the phrase, we also expected called performance.
that “train,” the verb immediately after “are” As with speech, performance usually
would have an “-ed” ending to mark it as a falls short of the user’s competence. Signs
past participle. The author and readers know are sometimes indicated quickly and incom-
the same rules; they share a language, as we pletely. Mistakes are made, but the user’s
have seen, they can create and understand competence remains. When we speak, we
sentences never read or heard before. often use fragments of sentences rather than
Speech, as you probably realize, is a phys- complete ones. We think of something else
ical event. As you will discover in follow- in midsentence and start a new sentence be-
ing chapters, we can analyze speech as an fore we have completed the first. Yet when a
acoustic signal and specify its components in teacher says, “Put your answer in a complete
terms of frequencies, amplitudes, and dura- sentence,” the student knows how to do it.
tions. Language, unlike speech, is intangible. He or she knows the language, even though
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C LINICAL NOTE
T he distinction between speech and language that we have been drawing is one that is basic
to the classificatio of disorders of communication. Although it is true that certain disorders
are characterized by features that belong to the categories of both language and speech, there is
a generally accepted view that speech disorders are those that affect articulation (the formation
of speech sounds), phonation (the production of voice by the vibrations of the vocal folds),
and fluenc (the smooth sequencing and rhythm of speech sounds). Language disorders, on
the other hand, affect the ability to express thoughts in spoken or written language and the
ability to comprehend the thoughts expressed by other people, either in speech or in writing.
Because this book is about speech, most of what you will read here about normal speech
production will provide insights about what can go wrong with the process. You should be
able, with the aid of your instructor, to make the connections between normal and disordered
speech production. Remember that without accurate descriptions of normal processes, it will
be impossible to describe disorders accurately and to plan strategies for their remediation.
that knowledge may be inconsistently re- which seem to serve as elements in thought are
flected in speech. How does this linguistic certain signs and more or less clear images
knowledge relate to thought? which can be “voluntarily” reproduced and
combined . . . . But taken from a psychological
viewpoint, this combinatory play seems to be the
THOUGHT essential feature in productive thought—before
there is any connection with logical construction
Thought may be defined as an internal or
in words or other kinds of signs which can be
mental representation of experience. Jerome
communicated to others. The above mentioned
Bruner has suggested that the representation
elements are, in my case, of visual and some of
can be in the form of images, action, or lan-
muscular type.
guage. We presumably use all available rep-
—Quoted in Ghiselin, B., The Creative Process.
resentations of our experiences, but some
New York: Mentor Books, 1955, p. 43.
people report the use of some forms more
than others. We may think via internal im- Representation of thought in language
ages, vaguely visual, when we are solving seems to be important in the mental activ-
a problem such as how many suitcases we ities of language users. Although it is appar-
think we can fit into the trunk of a car. Archi- ent that we can think without any formal
tects and artists often think in visual images. language, it is equally apparent that those
Thought can also be represented by inter- who do know a language use it to aid their
nal action or muscle imagery. In solving the thinking. But what if a thinking individual
problem of the direction and force needed to does not have access to a language? Let us
place a tennis shot out of reach of an oppo- consider the ramifications of thought with-
nent, we think in terms of action. Choreog- out language before going on to discuss the
raphers, athletes, and some physicists think more usual situation, thought with language.
this way. Albert Einstein, describing his un-
derstanding of how he thought, wrote:
Thought Without Language
The words of the language, as they are written We have all had an idea that was difficult
or spoken, do not seem to play any role in my to put into words. Indeed, words often seem
mechanism of thought. The psychical entities inadequate. Our ideas, as we express them,
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and speech. Despite this distortion, there are differ from those of another—which explains
many advantages in using language to repre- the differences in vocabulary.
sent thought. For one thing, language helps Instead of comparing languages, one can
make an idea or an experience available. Ex- look at a particular language and observe dif-
pressing a thought verbally allows it to be ferences based on social group membership.
recorded in various forms for analysis. Then, Basil Bernstein, a sociolinguist, used cultural
too, language also aids thinking by provid- differences as an explanation of linguistic dif-
ing a frame to hold information in memory. ferences he observed between middle-class
It enables us to communicate ideas about and working-class children in Great Britain.
people, places, activities, qualities, or things When children were asked to describe a pic-
when they are not present. ture, for example, the typical middle-class
Throughout this discussion, we have child would be fairly explicit, using many
viewed language as a means of expressing nouns. One would not need to see the pic-
thought and as a reflection of thought but ture to imagine it. The typical working-class
not as something that determines thought. child, in describing the same picture, would
The linguists Edward Sapir and his student use far fewer nouns, substituting such words
Benjamin Whorf proposed the theory of lin- as “he,” “it,” or “they,” so that it would be
guistic determinism (also called the Sapir– difficult to imagine the picture from the de-
Whorf hypothesis), which proposes that the scription alone. Bernstein attributed this dif-
way human beings think about their world ference to cultural differences: the hierarchy
is determined, in part, by the particular lan- of relationships in a working-class family in
guage that they speak. In its strongest version England has an authoritarian structure, so
the hypothesis maintains that language deter- that children are expected not to express
mines thinking. It was based on the notion themselves creatively but to listen to the head
that when languages differ in the number of of the family, whereas the middle-class fam-
terms available for categories such as “color” ily is less authoritarian and each member has
and “snow,” the speakers of languages with a say. In addition, the working-class family
more words available to describe such cate- member usually talks about shared experi-
gories will think differently about colors or ences, so the context is understood, whereas
types of snow than people speaking a lan- the middle-class family member is more apt
guage with fewer words for snow and color. to talk about experiences of his or her own
The reasoning was that people who know and not to assume so much knowledge on
many words for “snow” actually perceive the part of the listener. Bernstein’s choice of
distinctions that people with fewer words fail terms, restricted code (in the working-class case)
to perceive. Analogously, people who speak and elaborated code (in the middle-class case)
a language with no color term for “gray” is unfortunate, as it has been used to support
or “blue” will not be able to perceive those the notion that members of the working class
colors. This strong version of the hypothe- suffer from cognitive deficits, an idea that has
sis is not generally accepted today. Steven been generally discredited by more recent re-
Pinker maintains that “. . . there is no sci- search and that Bernstein himself eventually
entific evidence that languages dramatically rejected. His studies, do, however, point out
shape their speakers’ ways of thinking.” A the influence of cultural habits, if not differ-
weaker, less controversial version of linguis- ences in thinking, on language.
tic determinism holds that it may be easier Despite small differences in the use of
for an Eskimo to talk about snow than it is language by different people who share a
for a Guatemalan but that there is no sig- language and despite the larger differences
nificant difference between their abilities to among languages in their structure and vo-
perceive or think about snow. The interests cabularies, there may be some universal fea-
and needs of one language group may simply tures of human languages. To the extent
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that this is true, one ought to be able to second birthday, they may be putting two
learn something about the human mind, as words together for rudimentary telegraphic
Chomsky suggests, by studying the rules of sentences, and by the fourth, they have mas-
human language. tered the basic rules of the language of their
elders.
There are any number of questions that might The rapidity and apparent ease with
lead one to undertake a study of language. which children learn language is a phe-
Personally, I am primarily intrigued by the nomenon of childhood that cannot be
possibility of learning something, from the study repeated with such ease by adults. Adults,
of language, that will bring to light inherent especially those who already know several
properties of the human mind. languages, can learn new ones, but the age
—Chomsky, N., Language and Mind of puberty seems to be the dividing line be-
(enlarged edition). New York: Harcourt tween the ability to acquire a new language
Brace Jovanovich, 1972, p. 103. with relative ease and learning a new lan-
guage with more difficulty. In fact, some
If we define language as a set of rules that researchers reserve the term “language ac-
speakers apply to generate an infinite num- quisition” to refer to the critical time period
ber of sentences, using a set of words that during which language is learned easily and
constantly expands to cover all the concepts without formal instruction; they use the term
they may choose to express, then humans “language learning” refer to the methods and
are the only creatures known to have a com- techniques, including formal instruction, that
mand of language. In addition, the ability to speakers must employ if they want to add a
talk about language also seems to be unique second language to their repertoire. There
to humans. Humans may well be the only is, however, considerable controversy about
creatures on Earth who use their brains in the seriousness of the limitations imposed on
an attempt to understand brains and use lan- the language learner who is beyond the so-
guage in an attempt to understand languages. called critical period. Lenneberg and others
The interaction of thinking, language, and who base their arguments on neurobiologic
speech may seem clearer if we look further data suggest that natural language acquisi-
at language development in normal children. tion abilities cease to exist after the “criti-
cal period.” Others, including those who ob-
served Genie, a child who did not begin to
DEVELOPMENT OF LANGUAGE acquire language until after puberty, argue
AND SPEECH that the native ability to learn language is
never completely extinguished.
At birth, normal children have the potential What children universally accomplish
to walk and talk, although as babies, they can with spontaneity and speed, speech scien-
do neither. They are genetically endowed tists, linguists, and psychologists have labo-
with the appropriate neurophysical systems, riously analyzed with only partial success.
but time is needed for these systems to de- The question they ask is, how do children ac-
velop and mature. Their brains are approx- quire language? Theorists on this subject can
imately 40% of the size they will be when be generally divided into two groups. One
they are fully grown; peripheral areas such group of theorists analyzes language devel-
as the vocal tract and the legs must still un- opment in terms of learning principles. The
dergo anatomic change and the development other group analyzes language development
of motor–sensory associations appropriate in terms of an innate ability to acquire lan-
to talking and walking. At 6 months, chil- guage. Perhaps the most popular view is that
dren sit up and babble in meaningless vocal the details or individual items of a particular
play. By the first birthday, they may have language are learned, whereas the rule-
started to walk and name things. By the building abilities that underlie the structure
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and meaning of language, and thus the abil- ment or reward may not always produce an
ity to create novel utterances, are innate. observable response but that responses may
occur within the child. In the observable
instance, the association of the utterance
Learning Theory and Language
“mama” with the rewarding presence of the
Learning in the classic sense is the formula- mother with food and comfort establishes
tion of a new bond or association between “mama” as a learned response. In the case
a stimulus and a response. The classic ex- of an internal response, the child finds that
periment performed by Pavlov in Russia in just the word “mama” produces positive
the 1920s resulted in an association or bond feelings or rewards even if the word is not
between the sound of a bell and a dog’s said aloud. In what Mowrer has termed his
salivation. This bond was new and there- autistic theory, words that children have heard
fore considered to be learned, because be- but never uttered are rehearsed subvocally.
fore the experiment, the dog did not salivate This rehearsal evokes internal rewards
at the sound of a bell. The learned behav- that are sufficient for the words to become
ior, or conditioned response, was produced learned or conditioned behavior. Mowrer’s
by pairing an unconditioned stimulus, in theory thus accounts for the sudden pro-
this case, meat powder, with the conditioned duction of new words that children have
stimulus, the bell. Since meat powder reflex- not previously spoken.
ively causes increased salivation (an auto- Learning theories are consistent with
matic physiological response to food), the facts about much of children’s semantic ac-
presentation of meat powder together with quisition, especially the learning of word
the sound of the bell produced a neural bond meanings. They may even explain the ini-
between the two, so that finally the bell alone tial stages of adopting the syntax or word or-
would produce salivation. der of a particular language. The shaping of
In classic conditioning of this type, the the correct sounds of speech may also be de-
unconditioned response (e.g., changes in per- pendent on the reward of being understood
spiration, heart rate, or salivation) is invol- and perhaps obeyed. If a child who has said
untary and its cause is known (e.g., fear /tuti/ (“tootie”) without getting the desired re-
or food). In another model of learning, the sponse but then finds that “cookie” produces
unconditioned response is under voluntary the food that was wanted, he or she is amply
control (the subject pushes a lever or makes rewarded and will say /kuki/ in the future.
a sound) and the cause is not evident. In this
case, the learning is caused not by the pairing
Innateness Theory
of stimuli but by reinforcement or reward, a
method called operant conditioning. If the oper- There is much about language development
ant response is rewarded with food, praise, that learning theories cannot explain. Hu-
or some other positive experience, the be- man language users are creative in their
havior is strengthened, but if it is punished use of the system. Children, after they have
with electric shock, criticism, or some neg- heard sufficient utterances in their language,
ative experience, the behavior is weakened. construct rules governing the generation of
B. F. Skinner, who presented his theory of sentences. Those rules allow them to both
language learning in the book Verbal Behavior, understand and produce sentences that they
developed the operant conditioning model. have never heard before and therefore can-
Skinner proposed that language is learned by not have learned. They may first learn an ir-
selective reinforcement provided to the child regular past tense verb form such as “ran” by
as he or she uses language to operate on the conventional learning methods. However,
environment. once they have figured out the regular past
Another learning theorist, O. H. tense rule of adding /d/ to a present tense
Mowrer, has suggested that the reinforce- form as in “turned,” “hugged,” or “closed,”
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they are apt to cease using “ran” and to say tic rule system, vocabulary, and phonology
“runned” instead because their rule-building (sound system) of child language are each
ability leads them to regularize language comparatively undifferentiated. Young chil-
forms and ignore the models that they have dren’s syntactic rules for the negative may
heard and initially learned. Many psycholin- include the use of “no” with an affirmative
guists think that this ability to abstract the sentence, as in “No go home,” despite the fact
rules of the language is innate; some think that they have never heard adults produce a
that certain aspects of linguistic structure are negative sentence in such form. In the vocab-
innate. ulary of children, “doggie” may at first re-
fer to any four-legged animal; only later will
they narrow the meaning of the term. Chil-
Linguistic Competence
dren’s phonological systems may specify the
Noam Chomsky has written most persua- use of stop consonants wherever stops, frica-
sively on this subject. As we have seen, he tives, or consonant clusters appear in adult
is careful to distinguish between one’s com- speech. For example, they might pronounce
petence in a language—the set of rules a per- the words “two,” “Sue,” and “stew” as /tu/
son knows and used to produce and under- (“two”).
stand language—and performance, which is As they develop their language systems,
the speech, however fragmented, that a per- they are enlarging their knowledge of seman-
son utters. One has only to contrast a skilled tics, the meanings associated with words and
speaker with an inarticulate one to realize the phrases. At the same time, they are discov-
differences that can occur in performance. ering the rules by which their particular lan-
Nonetheless, all normal individuals possess guage is governed. The rules are of three
basic linguistic competence. It is this funda- sorts: syntactic rules, which account for the
mental knowledge that many linguists be- structure of sentences, including the relation-
lieve humans have an inborn ability to ac- ships among simple declarative sentences
quire. and questions; morphological rules, which ac-
Eric Lenneberg, Phillip Lieberman, and count for contrasts in meaning caused by
others have presented evidence that certain differences between meaningful sequences of
features of human anatomy and physiology sounds (“cut” vs. “cat” vs. “cats”) or by in-
evolved in such a way that they are now tonation (“Yes!” vs. “Yes?”); and phonological
specialized for the production of speech and rules, which account for the occurrence of
language. If this is so, then the potential to particular sounds in the stream of speech.
acquire language is not only innate but also We can illustrate these various rules by
species specific, as Homo sapiens alone displays inspecting a simple declarative sentence such
such specialized anatomic and physiological as “The eggs are in the basket.” Children,
adaptations. well before they reach adolescence, come to
Thinking provides a foundation for lan- understand that there is a relationship be-
guage; children can talk only about what tween the syntax of this sentence and that of
they know, but they may know more than “Are the eggs in the basket?” They are ev-
they can express with their incompletely de- idently able to construct a rule that enables
veloped language. Psycholinguists find that them to create questions by exchanging the
children are pattern seekers. On the basis of positions of the noun phrase (“the eggs”) and
the language they hear around them, they the verb (are) to create a question. They also
seem to form hypotheses about linguistic learn that the prepositional phrase, “in the
rules and apply them in their own way. The basket,” must stay in its original position so
language of children is not a poor imitation that the anomalous sentence “*Are in the bas-
of adult language but rather a different lan- ket the eggs?” is not produced. (The asterisk,
guage system with its own rules. The syntac- *, is used by linguists to denote anomalous
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or unattested utterances.) And, finally, they ing. The fact that “pat” and “bat” differ in
become aware that the rule cannot be applied meaning demonstrates that /p/ and /b/ are dif-
to establish the relationship between just any ferent phonemes in English. A phoneme by
declarative sentence and its associated ques- itself is meaningless. It cannot be described
tion: The interrogative form of “The eggs as a sound, either, for a phoneme can be pro-
simmered in the pan,” is not “*Simmered the duced only as one of several sounds. Thus,
eggs in the pan?” In other words, children the sounds of /p/ in “ pie,” “sp oon,” and
must be able to formulate a variety of rules “to p” differ from one another: the first is
associating questions with statements, rules produced with a vigorous burst of air as the
that are based on the syntactic structure and lips are parted, the second with a minimal
the lexical content of the declarative form of burst of air, and the third often with no burst
the sentence. of air at all if the lips remain in contact as
Children must also construct rules that when the word occurs at the end of an ut-
enable them to manipulate the morphemes terance. These sounds, when they are being
contained in sentences. A morpheme is the discussed as variants of the phoneme, are
smallest linguistic segment that means some- called allophones. The production of specific
thing. The word “cats” comprises two mor- allophones in specific contexts is often, but
phemes, “cat,” the singular form of the noun, not always, rule-governed. Any actual sound
and “-s,” (articulated as /s/), which means discussed without relation to its phonemic
“more than one.” There are two morphemes affiliation is a phone.
in “eggs” for the same reason. When mor- The term “phoneme” is used when one
phemes are combined, as in “cats” or “eggs,” wishes to refer to the function of a sound
the nature of the combination sometimes de- family in the language to signal differences
pends on the sound that occurs at the end in meaning, whereas the term “allophone” or
of the singular. Notice that the form of the “phone” is used when one wishes to refer to a
morpheme meaning “more than one” in cats particular sound that is articulated or heard.
is /s/, whereas in “eggs” it is /z/. If children Slashes are used to enclose symbols intended
wish to make a word such as “wish” plural, to represent phonemes: /p/. Brackets are
they must precede the /z/ by a very weakly used to enclose symbols intended to repre-
stressed vowel. Formal rules can be stated for sent allophones or phones: [p]. Ordinary al-
many such combinations of morphemes, but phabetic characters can be used to symbolize
not for all of them. The structures of some some sounds unambiguously, but there are
combinations are determined on a word-by- many sounds for which this is not possible. In
word basis, and, in such cases, rules will not our sample sentence “The eggs are in the bas-
apply generally. For example, a child who ket,” the last sound, /z/ in the word “eggs,”
has learned to make plurals only by using is represented by the spelling “s,” which is
the rules exemplified above for “cats, eggs,” ambiguous because the same letter is used to
and “wishes,” will not produce the expected represent the final /s/ in the words “cats,”
plural of the word “child,” and might say the medial / / in the word “leisure,” and
“∗ Two childs were playing in the room.” the initial consonant, /ʃ/ in the word “sure.”
And, indeed, children often do produce such Thus, the same alphabetic symbol is being
regularized plurals until they learn the ex- used to represent four different phonemes.
ceptions to the general rules for combining To make the transcription of sounds unam-
morphemes. biguous, phoneticians and linguists have de-
Finally, children who are acquiring lan- vised the International Phonetic Alphabet,
guage must construct rules for dealing with which appears in Appendix A.
the phonemes of their native language. A Spoken language is the end product
phoneme is a family of sounds that functions of a process that connects knowledge of
in a language to signal a difference in mean- meanings (semantics) with formal structures
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tit
H
ude
O were perhaps of sentence length or phrase
U
s
G
length. Sentences and phrases can be rel-
H atively lengthy, at least compared with in-
T
dividual words, and we might ask whether
there is any evidence for the storage of such
substantial stretches of planned utterances.
mantics
Such evidence exists in the form of stud-
Se Mo ies of slips of the tongue. Consider Victoria
s L
Fromkin’s example in which the planned ut-
ta c t i c Rul e
A
rp
ho
N
terance “He cut the salami with the knife,” is
phonolog
G
U actually produced as “He cut the knife with
A
the salami.” The timing and other prosodic as-
yn
G
E ca
i
A
le
s
l
S
r ti
m otor Ru
le
tions for intended word order are generated
s
PALERMO.
Arriving at Messina about 8.30, we found another telegram from
the Consul at Palermo. After visiting the Illinois again, we sailed for
Palermo at 10.30 P. M.
We arrived at Palermo about 9.30 Saturday morning. The captain
of the port sent an officer on board the Bayern with the following
message:
(Photo by S. H. Chapman.)
Before closing this report I take the opportunity as executive head
of the expedition to express my appreciation of the admirable
manner in which the members, individually and collectively,
performed their duties. Perfect harmony prevailed throughout; there
were no complaints, no questioning of orders, no difficulties of any
kind. If fatigue was felt by anyone, it was not mentioned until after
working hours.
DISTRIBUTION OF CASH.
30,000 lire to the Prefect of Catania (5,000 to be distributed at the
discretion of Madame Ferri), 30,000 to the hospitals of Catania,
1,000 to the Little Sisters of the Poor of Catania, 35,000 to Syracuse,
5,000 to Acireale, 4,000 to Taormina, 6,000 to Giardini, 10,000 for
distribution among small villages outside of Taormina du Giardini,
towards Messina, 1,000 to Archbishop of Messina, 20,500 to
Palermo.
Mills per
capita
New York $316,836.57 43.53
California 200,996.82 135.34
Illinois 97,475.04 20.21
Missouri 40,809.42 13.13
Connecticut 39,459.66 43.43
Massachusetts 37,061.45 13.21
New Jersey 31,417.38 16.67
Wisconsin 26,934.83 13.01
Rhode Island 24,048.65 56.11
Pennsylvania 19,416.51 3.08
District of Columbia 16,538.90 59.33
Maryland 16,496.16 13.88
Ohio 14,343.97 3.45
Washington 13,734.76 26.50
Michigan 12,450.49 5.10
Iowa 10,749.98 4.81
Indiana 9,285.00 3.68
Utah 6,506.00 23.50
Virginia 5,892.95 3.17
Maine 4,269.75 6.14
New Hampshire 4,054.84 9.85
Alabama 3,907.77 2.13
South Carolina 3,902.32 2.91
Texas 2,109.68 .69
Nebraska 2,002.30 1.87
Nevada 1,955.92 46.20
Louisiana 1,864.00 1.34
Montana 1,781.71 7.32
Minnesota 1,777.16 1.01
Kansas 1,652.00 1.12
West Virginia 1,222.59 1.27
Vermont 1,153.90 3.35
North Carolina 1,148.35 .60
Delaware 1,076.00 5.82
Arizona 794.27 6.46
South Dakota 778.82 1.93
Colorado 653.95 1.21
Kentucky 407.90 .18
Tennessee 395.57 .19
Oregon 381.67 .92
New Mexico 309.75 1.58
Oklahoma 238.00 .59
Florida 222.48 .42
Georgia 205.86 .09
Mississippi 123.36 .07
Arkansas 83.04 .06
North Dakota 77.00 .24
Idaho 19.73 .12
Wyoming 16.26 .17
Porto Rico 5.00
“Anonymous,” not credited to States 11.25
Quebec 10.00
Mexico 5.00
British Columbia 1.00