9.3 Language Production

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9.3 Language Production

• The twelvth week

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Key Points

• Conceptualization
• Formulation
• Articulation
• Self-regulation

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Difficulties

• Conceptualization
• Formulation
• Articulation
• Self-regulation

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Language Production

• Language production refers to the process
  involved in creating and expressing meaning
  through language.

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According to Levelt (1989), language production
contains four successive stages

• (1) conceptualization
• (2) formulation
• (3) articulation
• (4) self-monitoring (Scovel 199827)

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Language production

• First, we must conceptualize what we wish to
  communicate
• Second, we formulate this thought into a
  linguistic plan
• Third, we execute the plan through the muscles in
  the speech system
• Finally, we monitor ore speech, assessing whether
  it is what we intended to say and whether we said
  it the way we intended to.

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The biological foundations of language

• Evidently, our linguistic ability does not depend
  primarily on the structure of our vocal cords,
  for other mammals also have vocal cords. Human
  linguistic ability largely depends, instead, on
  the structure and dynamics of the human brain.
• Human beings are the only organisms in which one
  particular part of the left half of the brain is
  larger than the corresponding part of the right
  half.

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The case of Phineas Gage

• Brain researchers were stimulated tolearn why
  this language capacities remained intact. The
  point of this amazing case is that, if our
  language ability is located in the brain, it is
  clear that it is not situated right at the front.

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The human brain

• The most important part of the brain is the
  outside furface of the brain, called the cerebral
  cortex. The brain is divided into two roughly
  symmetrical halves, called hemispheres. In
  general, the right hemisphere controls voluntary
  movements of, and responds to signals from, the
  left side of the body, whereas the left
  hemisphere controls voluntary movemetns of, and
  responds to signals from, the right side of the
  body.

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Brain lateralization

• The left hemisphere has primary responsibility
  for language, while the right hemisphere controls
  visual and spatial skills as well as the
  perception of nonlinguistic sounds and musical
  melodies. The localization of cognitive and
  perceptual functions in a particular hemisphere
  of the brain is called lateralization.

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Brain lateralization for major mental functions
under the control of each hemisphere is given as
follows

• (1) Left hemisphere Right
  hemisphere
• Language and speech perception of
  nonlinguistic sound
• Analytic reasoning holistic
  reasoning
• Temporal ordering visual and
  spatial skills
• Reading and writing
  recognition of patterns
• Calculation recognition of
  musical melodies
• Associative thought

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Linguistic lateralization

• Linguistic lateralization is the brains
  neurological specialization for language.

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Linguistic lateralization

• (1) Left hemispheric dominance for language
• (2) Dichotic listening research
• (3) The language centers
• (4) Language perception, comprehension and
  production
• (5) The critical period for language acquisition

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(3) The language centers

• Three areas of the left hemisphere are vital to
  language, namely, Brocas area, Wernickes area
  and the angular gyrus.

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9.3.1 Conceptualization

• Psycholinguists generally agree that some form of
  mentalese exists--- a representation system which
  is different from language.
• The notion is that thoughts take form in
  mentalese and are then translated into linguistic
  form, but there is little agreement as to the
  properties of this prelinguistic mental
  representation.

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9.3.2 Formulation

• Formulation is much easier to describe than
  conceptualization because analysis on eventual
  output of the process, such as speech errors, and
  the choice of words or sentence structures can be
  a great help for understanding speech production.

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Speech errors

• Speech errors are made by speakers
  unintentionally.
• They are very common and occur in everyday
  speaking.
• In formulation speech, we are often influenced by
  the sound system of language. For example, big
  and fat--- pig fat fill the pool---fool the pill.

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slips of the tongue or tongue-slips,

• The scientific study of speech errors, commonly
  called slips of the tongue or tongue-slips, can
  provide useful clues to the processes of language
  production they can tell us where a speaker
  stops to think.

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Examples of the eight types of errors

• __________________________________________________
  __________
• Type Example
• __________________________________________________
  __________
• (1) Shift Thats so shell be
  ready incase she dicide to hits it.
  
  (decides to hit it).
• (2) Exchange Fancy getting your model
  resnosed. (getting your nose remodeled).
• (3) Anticipation Bake my bike. (take my
  bike).
• (4) Perseveration He pulled a pantrum.
  (tantrum).
• (5) Addition I didnt explain this
  clarefully enough. (carefully enough).
• (6) Deletion Ill just get up and
  mutter intelligibly. (unintelligibly).
• (7) Substitution At low speeds its too
  light. (heavy).
• (8) Blend That child is looking to
  be spaddled. (spanked\paddled).
• __________________________________________________
  __________

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Explainations of errors

• (1) in Shifts, one speech segment disappears from
  its appropriate place and appears somewhere else.
• (2) Exchanges are, in fact, double shifts, in
  which two linguistic units exchange places.
• (3) Anticipations occur when a later segment
  takes the place of an earlier one. They are
  different from shifts in that the segment that
  intrudes on another also remains in its correct
  place and thus is used twice.
• (4) Perseverations appear when a earlier segment
  replaces a later item.
• (5) Additions add linguistic material.
• (6) Deletions leave something out.
• (7) Substitutions occur when one segment is
  replaced by an intruder. These are different from
  the previously described slips in that the source
  of the intrusion may not be in the sentence.
• (8) Blends apparently occur when more than one
  word is being considered and the two intended
  items fuse or blend into a single item.

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An outstanding hypothesis concerning the basis
for such errors

• An outstanding hypothesis concerning the basis
  for such errors has been Freuds view that errors
  occur because we have more than a single plan for
  production and that one such plan competes with
  and dominates the other.

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The most common interpretation

• The most common interpretation is that we produce
  speech through a series of separate stages, ech
  devoted to a single level of linguistic analysis.
  
• Errors typically occur at one level, but not
  others, during the production processes. This is
  the so-called spoonerisms, named after Dr.
  Spooner, who was known to have made a good many
  such errors.

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9.3.3 Articulation

• Articulation of speech sounds is the third and a
  very important stage of production. 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.
• We depend on vocal organs to produce speech
  sounds so as to express ourselves. In the
  production of speech sounds, the lungs, larynx
  and lips may work at the same time and thus form
  co-articulation.
• The process of speech production is so
  complicated that it is still a mystery in
  psycholinguistics though psycholinguists have
  done some research with high-tech instruments and
  have known much about speech articulation.

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9.3.4 Self-regulation

• Self-regulation is the last stage o f speech
  production. To err is human. No matter who he is,
  he would make mistakes in conversationor in
  writing. So each person would do some
  self-corection over and over again while
  conversing.

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Deep understanding of the production process

• Errors are committed only by non-native speakers,
  but not by native speakers. Native seakrers often
  make mistakes and correct temselves
  immediately, which gives us deep understanding of
  the production process.
• Firstly, the production is not one-way
  transmission of messages. Speakers or writers
  self-regulate constantly so as to ensure each
  previous stage is accurate.
• Secondly, speakers or writers are sensitive to
  mistakes they make. So at the sight of mistakes
  they are capable of readjusting messages at the
  stages of conceptualization, formulation, or
  articulation quickly.
• Lastly, the fact that native speakers can monitor
  and correct mistakes immediately in production
  proves Chomskys idea that there are some
  idfferences between perfomance and competence.
  Competence monitors performance to ensure the
  productin is accurate.

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Native speakers often use different ways to edit
their linguistic peformance

• Firstly, at the very beginning or the
  conceptualization stage of the speech, when they
  find their speech inappropriate, they would start
  the utterance all over again.
• Secondly, at the formulation stage or
  articulation stage, speakers would not like to
  start afresh, but renew the sentence in part from
  the point.

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Assignments

• Define the following terms briefly.
• (1) language production
• Consider the following slips of the tongue. What
  does each reveal about the peocess of language
  production?
• (1) They laked across the swim.
• (2) The spy was gound and bagged.
• (3) I will zee you in the park.