Psychology of language

DAVID W. CARROLL

Production of Speech and Language

Supervisor: Dr. Abbasian

Done by: Mortadha Ali Jawad
MAIN POINTS
- Speech production consists of four major stages: conceptualizing a thought to be expressed,
formulating a linguistic plan, articulating the plan, and monitoring one’s speech.

- Spontaneous speech errors (slips of the tongue), although infrequent, reveal

planning units in the production of speech. Slips tend to occur in highly regular patterns.

- Both serial and parallel models of speech production have been developed,
and each has its merits. It appears that we plan one portion of our utterance at
the same time that we are producing another portion.

- We edit and correct our utterances when we err. The form and timing of
self-corrections occur in systematic ways.

- Comparisons of the production of signed and spoken language reveal both

similarities and differences.
8.1 SLIPS OF THE TONGUE
The scientific analysis of speech errors, commonly called ‘‘slips of
the tongue,’’ .
The way speech errors may be used in the construction of linguistic
arguments.
- Types of Speech Errors: Although speech errors cover a wide
range of semantic content, there appear to be only a small number
of basic types.
- Common Properties of Speech Errors: Other patterns in these
speech errors deserve a closer look.
- Explanations of Speech Errors: The Freudian Explanation. A
Psycholinguistic Explanation
8.2 FORMULATING LINGUISTIC PLANS
As noted in the introduction, the production of an utterance may be
analyzed in four steps: conceptualizing a message to be conveyed,
formulating it into a linguistic plan, articulating (implementing
the plan), and self-monitoring.
Basically, the questions here are, Where do ideas come from? And
in what form do ideas exist before they are
put into words? As to the latter question, psycholinguists and
cognitive psychologists generally agree that some form of
‘‘mentalese’’ exists—that is, a representational
system distinct from language.
8.2.1 Serial Models of Linguistic Planning
The basic idea of this model is that we begin with the meaning that we wish
to express and that subsequent levels of processing are devoted to specific
and distinct aspects of the utterance. We set up a syntactic structure of the
sentence,
which specifies which words will receive major and minor stress and where
the content words will fit in. Then the content words are added, followed by
function words and affixes. Finally, we identify the correct phonetic
characteristics of the
utterance, given its linguistic structure.
Overall, the model is a plausible account of the way the mental work of
production is distributed.
8.2.1.1 Independence of Planning Units
What evidence can be given that the stages hypothesis are actually independent
of one another? Probably the clearest evidence is that the vast majority of
speech errors contain mistakes at only one level of planning.

8.2.1.2 The Sequence of Planning Units

Certain errors indicate that when a speech unit is exchanged or shifted into a
different speech environment, certain phonological processes specify the exact
phonetic representation.
8.2.1.3 Role of Working Memory
Recent studies have examined the processing resources needed at various
stages of language production. At the conceptual stage, speakers determine
the conceptual features that constitute the message they wish to express. At
the lemma stage, syntactic features of words are activated. At the lexeme
stage, morphological features such as suffixes are activated. Finally, at the
phoneme selection stage, the specific phonetic segments are activated.
They conclude that early stages of production draw from central processing
resources, but the latter stage of phoneme selection does not.
8.2.2 Editing Processes
In addition to the stages of planning, some intriguing evidence
indicates that editing processes intervene between the planning of an
utterance and its articulation. These editing operations might provide
a last check to determine whether the planned utterance is
linguistically and socially acceptable.
Laboratory-Induced Speech Errors Several studies have examined
editing processes by inducing speech errors in laboratory settings. In
a typical study, participants are given a list of word pairs to read
silently, although occasionally they receive a cue that they must read
one pair aloud.
8.2.3 Parallel Models of Linguistic Planning
An alternative to the serial models advanced by Fromkin and
Garrett are parallel models that assume that multiple levels of
processing take place simultaneously during the course of language
production.

An important assumption of the model is that positive feedback

occurs from ‘‘later’’ to ‘‘earlier’’ stages of processing. Once a
morphological node is activated, it may spread its activation to a
syntactic node.
8.3 IMPLEMENTING LINGUISTIC PLANS
the last two stages of production: articulating and self-monitoring
- Articulating: Once we have organized our thoughts into a linguistic plan,
this information must be sent from the brain to the muscles in the speech
system so that they can then execute the required movements and produce
the desired sounds.
- Self-Monitoring: This notion remains a controversial one. There is no
debate, however, over whether we overtly edit what we say. From time to
time, we spontaneously interrupt our speech and correct ourselves
8.4 INSIGHTS FROM SIGN LANGUAGE
8.4.1 Slips of the Hand
slips of the hand similar to slips of the tongue take place with deaf signers.
- Independence of Parameters As we saw earlier in the chapter, slips of the
tongue have provided evidence for linguistically defined units such as
phonemes and distinctive features.
- Morpheme Structure Constraints One final aspect of signing errors
concerns whether they obey constraints of morpheme structure that are
part of the grammar of ASL. With speech, we have found that errors
follow phonological rules.
Production Rates
spontaneous speech alternates between fluent and hesitation
phases. These hesitations tend to reflect linguistic planning
but also might be related to other factors. One such factor is
the need to breathe. Speakers must interrupt their speech to
breathe, but signers are under no such obligation. It therefore
might be interesting to examine whether this difference
might cause differences in the rate of speaking and signing.
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