Production
Speech production is an unconscious multi-step process by which thoughts are generated into spoken utterances. Production involves the unconscious mind selecting appropriate words and the appropriate form of those words from the lexicon and morphology, and the organization of those words through the syntax. Then, the phonetic properties of the words are retrieved and the sentence is articulated through the articulations associated with those phonetic properties. In linguistics (articulatory phonetics), Articulation (phonetics), articulation refers to how the tongue, lips, jaw, vocal cords, and other speech organs used to produce sounds are used to make sounds. Speech sounds are categorized by manner of articulation and place of articulation. Place of articulation refers to where the airstream in the mouth is constricted. Manner of articulation refers to the manner in which the speech organs interact, such as how closely the air is restricted, what form of airstream is used (e.g. Pulmonic consonant, pulmonic, implosive, ejectives, and clicks), whether or not the vocal cords are vibrating, and whether the nasal cavity is opened to the airstream. The concept is primarily used for the production of consonants, but can be used for vowels in qualities such as Voicing (phonetics), voicing and nasalization. For any place of articulation, there may be several manners of articulation, and therefore several homorganic consonants. Normal human speech is pulmonic, produced with pressure from the lungs, which creates phonation in the glottis in the larynx, which is then modified by the vocal tract and mouth into different vowels and consonants. However humans can pronounce words without the use of the lungs and glottis in alaryngeal speech, of which there are three types: esophageal speech, pharyngeal speech and buccal speech (better known as Donald Duck talk).Errors
Speech production is a complex activity, and as a consequence errors are common, especially in children. Speech errors come in many forms and are used to provide evidence to support hypotheses about the nature of speech. As a result, speech errors are often used in the construction of models for language production and Language acquisition, child language acquisition. For example, the fact that children often make the error of over-regularizing the -ed past tense suffix in English (e.g. saying 'singed' instead of 'sang') shows that the regular forms are acquired earlier. Speech errors associated with certain kinds of aphasia have been used to map certain components of speech onto the brain and see the relation between different aspects of production: for example, the difficulty of expressive aphasia patients in producing regular past-tense verbs, but not irregulars like 'sing-sang' has been used to demonstrate that regular inflected forms of a word are not individually stored in the lexicon, but produced from affixation of the base form.Perception
Speech perception refers to the processes by which humans can interpret and understand the sounds used in language. The study of speech perception is closely linked to the fields of phonetics and phonology in linguistics and cognitive psychology and perception in psychology. Research in speech perception seeks to understand how listeners recognize speech sounds and use this information to understand spoken language. Research into speech perception also has applications in building speech recognition, computer systems that can recognize speech, as well as improving speech recognition for hearing- and language-impaired listeners. Speech perception is Categorical perception, categorical, in that people put the sounds they hear into categories rather than perceiving them as a spectrum. People are more likely to be able to hear differences in sounds across categorical boundaries than within them. A good example of this is Voice-onset time, voice onset time (VOT). For example, Hebrew speakers, who distinguish voiced /b/ from voiceless /p/, will more easily detect a change in VOT from -10 ( perceived as /b/ ) to 0 ( perceived as /p/ ) than a change in VOT from +10 to +20, or -10 to -20, despite this being an equally large change on the VOT spectrum.Repetition
In speech repetition, speech being heard is quickly turned from sensory input into motor instructions needed for its immediate or delayed vocal imitation (in Baddeley's model of working memory#Phonological loop, phonological memory). This type of mapping plays a key role in enabling children to expand their spoken vocabulary. Masur (1995) found that how often children repeat novel words versus those they already have in their lexicon is related to the size of their lexicon later on, with young children who repeat more novel words having a larger lexicon later in development. Speech repetition could help facilitate the acquisition of this larger lexicon.Problems
There are several organic and psychological factors that can affect speech. Among these are: # Diseases and disorders of the lungs or the vocal cords, including paralysis, respiratory infections (bronchitis), vocal fold nodules and cancers of the lungs and throat. # Diseases and disorders of the brain, including alogia, aphasias, dysarthria, dystonia and speech processing disorders, where impaired motor planning, nerve transmission, phonological processing or perception of the message (as opposed to the actual sound) leads to poor speech production. # Hearing problems, such as otitis media, otitis media with effusion, and listening problems, auditory processing disorders, can lead to phonological problems. # Articulatory problems, such as slurred speech, stuttering, lisp (speech), lisping, cleft palate, ataxia, or nerve damage leading to problems in Manner of articulation, articulation. Tourette syndrome and tics can also affect speech. Various congenital disorder, congenital and acquired tongue diseases can affect speech as can motor neuron disease. # In addition to dysphasia, Anomic aphasia, anomia and auditory processing disorder can impede the quality of auditory perception, and therefore, expression. Those who are deafness, Hard of Hearing or deaf may be considered to fall into this category. # Psychiatric disorders have been shown to change speech acoustic features, where for instance, fundamental frequency of voice (perceived as pitch) tends to be significantly lower in major depressive disorder than in healthy controls. Therefore, speech is being investigated as a potential biomarker for mental health disorders.Brain physiology
Classical model
Modern research
Modern models of the neurological systems behind linguistic comprehension and production recognize the importance of Broca's and Wernicke's areas, but are not limited to them nor solely to the left hemisphere. Instead, multiple streams are involved in speech production and comprehension. Damage to the left lateral sulcus has been connected with difficulty in processing and producing morphology and syntax, while lexical access and comprehension of irregular forms (e.g. eat-ate) remain unaffected. Moreover, the circuits involved in human speech comprehension dynamically adapt with learning, for example, by becoming more efficient in terms of processing time when listening to familiar messages such as learned verses.See also
* FOXP2 * Freedom of speech * Imagined speech * Index of linguistics articles * List of language disorders * Spatial hearing loss * Speechwriter * Talking birds * Vocology * Public speaking * Origin of languageReferences
Further reading
* Fitzpatrick, Élizabeth M. ''Apprendre à écouter et à parler''. University of Ottawa Press, 2013External links