CHAPTER OUTLINE
INTRODUCTION
From Concept to Expression
SOURCES OF DATA FOR MODELS OF SPEECH PRODUCTION
Speech Errors
Disfluencies
ISSUES IN SPEECH PRODUCTION
The Units of Speech Production
Word Selection and Placement Errors
Morphemes and Speech Errors
Lexical Search and Pausal Phenomena
Grammatical Rules
The Phrase as a Planning Unit
How Far Ahead Do We Plan?
WHAT SPEECH ERROR DATA SUGGEST ABOUT THE PROCESS OF SPEECH PRODUCTION?
Speech Is Planned in Advance
the Lexicon Is Organized Both Semantically and Phonologically
Morphologically Complex Words Are Assembled
Affixes and Functors Behave Differently than Content Words in Slips of the Tongue
Speech Errors Reflect Rule Knowledge
SPEECH PRODUCTION PROCESSING MODELS
The Utterance Generator Model of Speech Production
The Garrett Model
Levelt's Model
Dell's Model
SUMMARY
KEY CONCEPTS
I. The study of speech production attempts to explain how people turn a mental concept into a spoken utterance. Because of the difficulty of constructing experiments to reveal the complex steps in this process, psycholinguists rely primarily upon analysis of speech errors and speech disfluencies. (Page 310)
II. Speech communication may be viewed as a chain of events linking the speaker's brain with the listener's brain. We know a great deal about the physiological, articulatory and acoustic aspects of speech production, but we are still far from understanding the processes by which speakers put the message they wish to convey into linguistic form. (Page 310)
III. Although philosophers have long speculated about the language of thought, how concepts are represented in the brain is still a mystery. Numerous alternative views have been posited, with little empirical evidence to support one any more than the rest. (Pages 311-312)
IV. Speech errors or slips of the tongue, (such as Spoonerisms) occur regularly in normal conversation. These errors provide indirect evidence for the units, stages and cognitive computations involved in speech production. Study of speech produced in seminars, classes, and business meetings reveals that 98% of utterances are grammatical. The remaining 2%, which is ungrammatical, provides insight into the production process. (Pages 312-313)
V. Disfluencies, such as filler words (creating filled pauses) hesitations, repetitions, and false starts also provide insight into speech production. When describing pictures, hesitations (unfilled pauses) occur roughly every 5 words. When conversing naturally, hesitations and fillers occur every 7-8 words.
(Page 313)
VI. Speech is produced by stringing together, arranging and rearranging a finite number of stored items. One of the major issues in the study of speech production is to determine just what these stored units are. Analysis of speech errors has show that utterances are composed of discrete units of varying sizes and classes. (Page 313-315)
VII. Speech error collections show many examples of phonological errors in which single phonemic-sized elements are anticipated (sounds which will come later on appear earlier than intended) or persevere (sounds produced early in the utterance reappear in an incorrect location later on.) Other errors include phonemes that are deleted, added, or exchanged. (Page 315)
VIII. Phonetic segments as units of speech appear to be organized as vowels, consonants, and consonant clusters. (Page 315)
IX. The most elementary unit of speech production is the quark, which is composed of the phonetic features (or distinctive features) of the utterance. Phonological features errors are common. Vowel features may exchange or become confused with other vowel features and consonant features with other consonant features, but consonant features and vowel features do not interfere with each other. (Page 316)
X. Syllables also constitute units in the phonetic programming system. Initial syllables interact with other initial syllables, medials with medials and finals with finals. (Page 316)
XI. Word and phrasal stress may also be processing units. Studies of speech errors in tonal languages show that tone can become disordered.
(Page 317-318)
XII. Word selection and placement errors are also an object of study. Disfluencies and hesitations occur more before content words than before function words, suggesting that the speaker has not yet arrived at his lexical target. (Page 318)
XIII. Morphological units serve as production building blocks. Stem morphemes, derivational morphemes and inflectional morphemes undergo rearrangement in different sorts of errors. The rules of inflectional and derivational morphology surface in speech errors. (Page 319-320)
XIV. Even larger linguistic structures, such as phrases, can serve as speech units. Sentence constituents (noun phrases, verb phrases, prepositional phrases) are marked off as units when we speak. Noun phrases and verb phrases may be exchanged in speech errors, but the grammatical structure of the sentence is not disordered. (Page 320)
XV. Other support for the phrase being a separate speech unit is that in self corrections and retracings, speakers tend to go back to the beginning of the constituent containing the error. (Page 320-321)
. Pauses are likely to occur at clause boundaries, suggesting that speakers may need the pause time to encode the following clause. Syntactically more complex speech tends to contain more hesitations and filled pauses, suggesting that pauses reflect active sentence-planning efforts. (Page 321)
XVII. Because from 79%-85% of exchange errors occur in the same clause, researchers believe that speech is mostly planned in clausal units. However, the 15%-21% of errors found outside of clausal boundaries show that speech planning must include larger segments of discourse. (Page 321-322)
XVIII. Theoretical, explanatory models of speech production must account for the hierarchical nature of speech production. A viable model of production must posit all and only the necessary stages of production, and predict the form of the utterance representation at that level. (Page 322-323)
XIX. Substitution errors and blends suggest that words are organized both semantically and phonologically. Erroneous selection occurs only after the appropriate class of word has been selected -- nouns substitute for nouns, verbs for verbs, etc. The words involved are often phonologically similar.
(Page 323)
XX. Some lexical selection errors seem to fall into the category of Freudian slips, the result of unconscious competing plans or nonlinguistic interference, either internally or externally introduced. (Page 324)
XXI. Some word substitutions occur that appear to be influenced by previous words in the string -- they are syntagmatically conditioned. In these cases, the speaker may be selecting lexical entries listed in close proximity to the intended item. (Page 324)
XXII. Derivational errors in morphologically complex words appear to occur before lexical insertion. Morphological rules of word formation therefore appear to be actively engaged during speech production and morphologically complex items are compiled, even if they are stored as wholes. (Page 324-325)
XXIII. Affix morphemes and minor sentence elements are often moved or shifted in the sentence, whereas major category stems and words are more likely to be involved in exchange errors. (Page 326)
XXIV. Speech errors reflect rule knowledge. The productive use of such rules are shown in utterances where a regular rule has been applied to an irregular form.
(Page 326-327)
XXV. The Utterance Generator model proposed by Fromkin (1971) is a top-down generator that distinguishes six stages at which different representations of the utterance occur. The stages are:
A. the generation of the meaning to be conveyed
B. the mapping of the meaning onto a syntactic structure
C. the generation of the intonation contours of the utterance
D. the selection of words from the lexicon
E. phonological specification
F. the generation of the motor commands for speech
(Page 328-331)
XXVI. The Garrett model of speech production (1975) makes some of the implicit aspects of the Fromkin model explicit and provides a major framework for further work in the field. This model distinguishes between a conceptual level, a functional level and a positional level. (Page 331)
XXVII. Levelt's model (1989) says message generation is initiated by the conceptualization of the utterance. First, intention is conceived, creating the preverbal message which is then fed to the formulator. The formulator includes both a grammatical encoder (which retrieves lexical items) and a phonological encoder. The articulator then executes the phonetic plan by sending messages to the neuromuscular system. Finally, the speech comprehension system checks the output for errors. (Pages 331-334)
XXVIII. A lemma contains an item's meaning as well as its syntactic properties.
(Page 333)
XXIX. Dell's model uses the concept of spreading activation to account for speech production. In this model, words and rules are organized into a network with connections between units based on semantic and phonological relatedness. Activation is assumed to be bidirectional: it is possible to have interactions between semantic and phonological representations. (Page 337)
XXX. Recently retrieved lexical items can prime the speaker to make a slip based on the phonetic bias paradigm. (Page 338)
MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS
1. Speech errors provide us with the opportunity to:
a. evaluate the speed of lexical access
b. identify the units used in planning and generating utterances
c. observe the principles that govern speech comprehension
d. observe the acquisition of phonetic ability (Page 312)
2. Anticipation errors demonstrate that:
a. a sentence is not planned one word at a time
b. Freudian psychology is applicable to the process of speech production
d. syllables are unlikely to be basic planning units in speech production
e. fatigue adversely affects speech fluency (Page 315)
3. Studies of speech fluency indicate that:
a. hesitations are most likely to precede function words
b. pauses are longer before function words
c. hesitation phenomena are less informative than slips of the tongue
d. hesitations are more likely to occur before less commonly used words in the language (Page 318)
4. Which of the following is not a probable planning unit in speech production?
a. discourse
b. phonetic features
c. morphemes
d. stress (Page 314)
5. Patterns of retracing to correct speech errors tend to support which of the following as a possible planning unit in speech production?
a. syllables
b. words
c. phrases
d. morphemes (Page 320)
6. Freudian slips appear to suggest that
a. the phoneme is the primary unit of speech production
b. lexical insertion precedes assignment of grammatical class
c. morphologically complex words are assembled
d. semantically related items are stored near one another in the mental lexicon (Page 324)
7. An error such as track cow/z/ for cow track/s/ suggests that:
a. the phonetic realization of the plural is assigned before the exchange takes place
b. there is a discrete stage at which the phonetic realization of abstract grammatical affixes is assigned
c. the lexicon is organized semantically
d. the speaker had unconscious competing plans (Page 319)
8. Competing plans at the conceptual level might produce:
a. hesitations before morphologically complex forms
b. editing errors
c. tip of the tongue phenomena
d. Freudian slips (Page 324)
9. Which of the following is true of Fromkin's model of speech production?
a. words are selected from the lexicon before syntactic structure is generated
b. intonation contour is assigned after phonological specification has occurred
c. intonation contour is generated before words are selected from the lexicon
d. phonological specification is the final stage in the speech production process (Page 330)
10. Evidence for a monitoring function in speech production comes from:
a. Freudian slips
b. stranding errors
c. the fact that it is difficult to elicit speech errors which result in non-words
d. filled pauses (Page 336)
11. Errors in which a sound that will come later in the utterance inappropriately appears earlier than intended are called
a. Freudian errors
b. anticipation errors
c. phonemic preselection errors
d. perseverance errors (Page 315)
12. A lemma is
a. a bundle that contains the semantic and syntactic properties of items in the lexicon
b. the part of a word that is mispronounced or otherwise misplaced in a speech error
c. another word for a spoonerism
d. a bundle containing the phonological information about an item in the lexicon (Page 332)
13. The Reverend William A. Spooner is famous for
a. his revolutionary analyses of speech errors
b. his propensity for producing speech errors
c. his model of the speech production process
d. his data bank of speech errors (Page 312)
14. If you mean to say phonological rule, but instead say phonological fool, this speech error would be called
a. consonant anticipation
b. consonant repetition
c. consonant perseveration
d. consonant migration (Page 315)
15. Which if these statements is true?
a. syntactically more complex speech tends to be characterized by more pauses and hesitations
b. telling speakers not to pause while telling stories has no effect upon their ultimate performance
c. pauses and hesitations in speech are unnecessary except for purposes of breath support
d. speakers who pause more while telling a story also exhibit more evidence of back tracking and repetition (Page 321)
16. In studies of the speech produced in planned talks and spontaneous conversation, about what percent of the utterances produced are error free?
a. 98%
b. 88%
c. 78%
d. 68% (Page 312)
17. When speakers are conversing naturally, how often do they hesitate and use filler words like um, well, and you know?
a. every three or four words
b. every seven or eight words
c. every eleven or twelve words
d. every nineteen or twenty words (Page 313)
18. Speech errors such as consonant anticipation and consonant perseveration have been used to demonstrate
a. that at some level we have internalized notions of phonetic segments
b. that consonants and vowels are stored in different parts of the brain
c. that Robertson's model of speech production has more empirical support than Saroyan's model
d. that brain injuries often impede the ability to segment speech
(Page 315)
19. If, instead of saying When you get old, your spine shrinks, you were to say When you get old your shrine spinks, you would call this
a. a Freudian slip
b. consonant cluster division
c. consonant cluster anticipation
d. consonant cluster exchange (Page 315)
20. If, instead of saying big and fat, you were to say pig and vat, this would be
a. voicing reversal
b. consonant reversal
c. voicing perseveration
d. voicing anticipation (Page 316)
21. Analysis of the signing errors of ASL speakers has shown that
a. they make many fewer errors than speakers of oral languages
b. they make similar types of errors as speakers of oral languages
c. they make unique types of errors, frequently "inventing" new signs
d. they make many more errors than speakers of oral languages (Page 317)
22. The internalized knowledge that permits speakers to simultaneously be both speaker and listener is known as
a. a linguistic coprocessor
b. mental grammar
c. generative grammar
d. preverbal speech (Page 310)
23. Filled and unfilled pauses in natural speech are also known as
a. disfluencies
b. lemmas
c. suspensions
d. silent and voiced interim utterances (Page 313)
24. The first known linguistic work to deal with speech errors was published
a. in the eighth century by the Arab linguist Al-Ki-sa'i
b. in the fifteenth century by the Italian humanist Federico Grisone
c. in the nineteenth century by Sigmund Freud
d. in the twentieth century by the British Reverend William Spooner
(Page 314)
25. The most elementary unit of speech production is the
a. lexeme
b. phoneme
c. quark
d. voneme (Page 315)
26. If you mean to say I knew about it already but instead say I knowed about it already this is
a. a perseverance error
b. an example of the misapplication of a grammatical rule
c. a failure of mental grammar
d. a classic Spoonerism (Page 319)
27. Analysis of exchange errors has shown that
a. most errors involve words in the same clause
b. errors are equally likely to occur anywhere within the utterance
c. all exchanges occur within words in the same clause
d. most errors involve words in adjacent clauses (Page 321-322)
28. If someone says the word silk out loud seven times, and is then asked what cows drink, she is likely to reply milk. This is an example of
a. the lemma hypothesis
b. a rhyme prime
c. the phonetic bias paradigm
d. the sound priming effect (Page 339)
29. According to Dell's model of speech production
a. speakers come to the speech act with a cohort of possible utterances that they must narrow down to arrive at the correct word
b. concepts activate a spreading network of lexical items sharing semantic features with the thought to be conveyed
c. the various stages of the production of speech are modular
d. the first step in speech production is seeing or imagining the image of the thing to be discussed (Page 337)
30. Levelt's model of speech production says that
a. the production of speech is a socially and psychologically conditioned response
b. the acquisition of grammar is not explicitly taught
c. a preverbal message or concept is fed into a grammatical and a phonological formulator
d. concepts are closely connected to the phonological form of the words that express them (Page 332)
SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS
31. What are the two major sources of data for models of speech production?
32. What are two common types of speech error? Give examples.
33. According to the text, what are the most elementary units of speech production, and how are they manifested in speech errors?
34. In a theoretical model of speech production, what do we call the stage at which words are placed into the intended utterance?
35. What is a Freudian slip? What would distinguish it from another type of speech error? Give an example.
36. Describe a type of error that might be produced by a user of ASL.
37. What evidence is there that word and phrasal stress are manipulable processing units?
38. Give an example of a stranding error
39. What is the difference between a filled and an unfilled pause?
40. Give an example of an exchange error
41. How do we know that phonetic features are represented as units in speech production?
42. What is retracing? Give an example.
ESSAY QUESTIONS
43. Compare and contrast two different models of speech production.
44. What types of behaviors suggest that there is an editing function within the speech production process?
45. Why are speech errors so important to the study of speech production? Give some examples of what kinds of information speech errors can give us.
46. Evaluate the suggestion that disfluencies are necessary for successful speech production.
47. How do psycholinguists determine which linguistic units are likely to be psychologically real components of the speech production process?
48. How far in advance is speech planned? Evaluate the evidence that suggests that speech is preplanned before production.
49. One of the goals of research on speech production is to identify its units. What have researchers discovered about these units, and how have they made their conclusions? Give some examples.
50. What do speech errors reveal about our knowledge of grammatical rules?