9.

3 Language Production
The twelvth week

Key Points
Conceptualization
Formulation
Articulation
Self-regulation

Difficulties
Conceptualization
Formulation
Articulation
Self-regulation

Language Production
Language production refers to the process

involved in creating and expressing

meaning through language.

According to Levelt (1989), language

production contains four successive stages
(1) conceptualization
(2) formulation
(3) articulation
(4) self-monitoring (Scovel 1998:27)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Linguistic lateralization
Linguistic lateralization is the brains

neurological specialization for language.

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

(3) The language centers

Three areas of the left hemisphere are vital

to language, namely, Brocas area,

Wernickes area and the angular gyrus.

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.

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.

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.

slips of the tongue or tongueslips,

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.

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).
____________________________________________________________

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.

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.

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.

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 coarticulation.
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.

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.

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.

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.

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.