Lecture 1: The Speech Process 

Means of conveying a message:

1. Visual: sign language, waving flags, flashing mirrors, written message, etc.

2. Audible: fog-horn, Morse code, drum, or simply…

spoken form, by word of mouth – the most frequent means of communication

PHONETICS is concerned with the human noises by which ‘the message’ is actualized, or given audible shape: the nature of those noises, their combinations and their function in relation to the message.

Speaking

Body language Visual images

Writing

The most common ways to communicate

SPOKEN LANGUAGE

Dynamic and transient

Interruptions and overlaps

are common.

Informal vocabulary

interaction where both participants are present.

Opportunity to rethink or rephrase an utterance

Spontaneous and instant

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WRITTEN LANGUAGE

Writer is usually distantfrom the reader

Clear expression due tocareful sentence structure,

punctuation and formatting.

No visual cues, no immediate

feedback

Time lag between production

and reception Formal vocabulary,

including words which are not normally

used in spoken language

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THE SPEECH PROCESS

Definition: The activity of human organisms by which the sounds of the language are produced, transmitted through the air and received.

In essence, speech is COMMUNICATION, i.e. the exchange of information by means of auditory sensory stimulation.

There are two participants in the process: the SPEAKER and the LISTENER (or the HEARER).

Communication process –model:

C – Creative FunctionF – Forwarding FunctionH – Hearing FunctionNP – Nervous PathwaysVO – Vocal Organs

The speaker: CREATIVE FUNCTION takes place in the BRAIN –

the first organ set in motion. Here the NEED for communication arises, the speaker decides on the MEANS by which to convey the message and the FORM of the message to be conveyed.

The brain stores a huge amount of linguistic knowledge: phonological (phoneme inventory and rules), morphological, lexical, syntactic, pragmatic.

FORWARDING FUNCTION starts in the brain, which sends out patterned instructions along the NERVOUS PATHWAYS to the muscles which move the speech organs.

MUSCULAR ACTIVITY – the lungs and speech organs are set in motion producing a variety of speech sounds.

There are THREE distinguishable phases of the creative function:

a need for communication; decision on the medium to be used; decision on the form the message will take. E.g. Have another cup? Would you like another cup?

Pass your cup. Have some more. This was the PSYCHOLOGICAL STAGE of the

speech process on the part of the speaker.

The air channel

The speaker’s vocal organs have set the surrounding air in motion – the muscular movement has been transformed into SOUND WAVES – which spread out in every direction.

ACOUSTIC STAGE. Sounds are physical objects with physical

characteristics like any other wave.

The listener

The waves of varying pressure reach the outer EAR of the listener – PHYSIOLOGICAL STAGE.

By means of the ear-drum the physical movement is conveyed further into the INNER EAR where it is transformed into nervous impulses again.

These impulses are sent along NERVOUS PATHWAYS from the ear to the brain of the listener. – NEUROLOGICAL STAGE

In the brain the listener decodes the message and the brain performs creative function again.

The ear

Perception A complex process – the incoming signal is

full of various noises, which are efficiently analyzable as clear linguistic units – phonemes.

E.g. Pat must have been mad to let Tim... /p&t mVst h&v bi;n m&d tU let tIm/ [ph&?mVst@vbImm&dt@le?thIm] Problem: acoustic characteristics do

not translate directly into linguistic units.

Perception takes place in several stages: Auditory stage (based directly on the physical

input) – we take in the raw signal with all its acoustic properties.

Phonetic stage – ignoring the difference between two different speech signals and identifying them as one speech sound/phoneme (/g/ in /gi/ or /gu/) - CATEGORICAL PERCEPTION.

Phonological stage –E.g , we hear the word [stvi:t] in English, we rule it out because we know the initial /stv/ sequence is not acceptable in English, and we interpret it as the sequence of phonemes /stri:t/ instead.

Lexical, syntactic and semantic stage – we apply our knowledge of these fields when decoding a message. We can rule out things like:

(lexical nonsense) Accidents carry out honey between the house.

(syntactic/grammatical) Men is on strike. Man are on strike.

(semantic/pragmatic) My wives have just told me…

Ordering of stages of perception: Top-down and bottom-up models of perception

If speech perception starts from the acoustic/auditory signal and goes to the higher levels of analysis – bottom-up model of perception.

However, does speech perception/cognition necessarily go in this direction?

Experiment: word pronounced as /k&r@kt@`rIs*Ik/, where * indicates a segment was not heard by the listener, due to a noise of some kind.

Does the listener know which word was uttered?

What if the listener hears: /k&**kt@`rIs*Ik/? Another example: a speaker fails to hear /s/ in

the sentence ‘He likes it’, and hear it as /hi lAIk* It/.

Provided the listener is a native/proficient speaker of English, what does the listener assume he/she has heard?

What can be concluded from the above examples?

A number of other experiments have shown that perception is not so simple:

While listening, we also actively use our lexical, grammatical or pragmatic knowledge in order to figure out the phonetic and phonological levels.

Sometimes, whole phonemes or sequences of phonemes are ‘restored’ – the listener assumes he/she has heard something that has not been uttered.

That shows that perception also goes from the ‘higher’ levels – top-down model.

Generally, there is a constant interaction between the levels – we have to rely on the acoustic signal, but we also have to use our knowledge of vocabulary, grammar, etc. in order to comprehend a message.

SUMMARY Speech process is a complex activity happening

between the speaker and the hearer. It consists of the following recognizable stages:

1. Psychological stage 2. Neurological stage 3. Physiological stage 4. Physical/acoustic stage – AIR CHANNEL 5. Physiological stage 6. Neurological stage 7. Psychological stage