SPEECH PRODUCTION AND SPEECH ERRORS

Speech production involves how a speaker translates information and intentions into
the language formts available in one language. Whenever we speak, we often produce errors
as we translate our ideas into speech. There are two topic chosen for this section :

1. Execution of Speech Plans and Speech Errors

The actual speech execution is often filled with pauses and hesitations, corrections,
repeats and replacements, and even slips of the tongue. Speech errors have been primarly
source of data of all information about speech execution. There are two major sources of
speech errors : a) They are the result of the difficulties the speakers have in trying to plan
and execute speech at the same time. b) The result of difficulties the speakers have in
forming the alticultory program to guide the alticultory muscles in executing sounds.
Speech errors give good evidence to the following phenomena :
a. Speakers try to produce each constituent fluently
b. They try to plan each constituent as a unit
c. When they do have to stop, they often offer a brief explanation before correcting
themselves and going on
d. It is the selection of words that makes them stop when they do
Speakers generally try to make and ideal delivery for several reasons. For one thing they
want to make themselves understood. Another reason is that those who speak fluently are
likely judge clever, abler, and more effective than those without good fluentcy. (Clark and
Clark, 1977 : 262)
2. Common Speech Errors
The most common spech errors which disrupt ideal delivery are pausing and
hesitation when speakers speed up. Fast speakers are fluent because they do not hesitate a
lot; on the contrary, slow speakers are not fluent because they do a lot of hesitations.
Clark and Clark (1977 : 267-268) have mentioned three major hesitation points at which
speakers are likely to stop for planning :
a. Grammatical Junctures
This is the logical point to stop to plan the skeleton and first constituent of the
upcoming sentence. Pauses at these junctures tend to be long and frequent. The
first word in most of them is a function word : an article, a preposition, a
conjunction, or a pronoun.
 b. Other Constituent Boundaries
Boundaries are the appropiate place to stop to plan details of the next major
constituent – precisely what noun phrase, prepositional phras, verb phrase, or
adverbial phrase is to fit next into the sentence skeleton.
c. Before the first Content Word within a Constituent
This is a point after speakers have commited themselves to the syntactic form of
the constituent being excuted, but before they have planned the precise words to
fill it out.
Common speech errors often occurs in the form of silent pause, a period of no speech
between words. Other speech error is in the form of filled pause, a gap filled by ah, eh, uh,
mm. The nest speech error which commonly occurs in speech is repeats. False starts are
two kinds : Unretraced (correction of a word) and Retraced (repetitions of one or more
words before the corrected words).
ANSWERING QUESTIONS

1. Why do speech errors exist? Discuss as well the sources of speech errors!
Answer :
By analyzing errors individually and in the context of their surroundings, we may
better learn the underlying mechanism that occurs to produce our speech, and
investigate the reality of speech production units word formation.
2. Explain and give examples to the following common speech errors :
- Pauses
- False starts
- Corections
- Stutters
- Hesitation
answer :
- pause frequently, take a breath, look up, and scan the audience. . . .
"Besides allowing you to fill your lungs with air, pausing also allows the audience
to absorb the spoken words and create pictures in their own minds. The habit of
pausing eliminates the dreaded "um" and "err" and adds emphasis to your last
point."
- Broadly it means, you start your speech with an out-of-turn point or mre
commonly, on a “wrong note” and forced to retract. It usually happens when the
speaker had made no preparation or very nervous but trying to appear in control of
himself or simply lacks experience or all these.
- Stuttering is a speech pattern that contains an abnormal amount of disruptions that
stop the forward flow of speech due to their frequency or duration.
- The category of speech error that is called corrections is quite similar to false
starts. Something that makes them different is that correction is expressed in
explicitly “I mean”, “or rather”, “that is”, or “well” to mark the pharases as a
correction. Corrections occur when the speaker’s better utterances to say and then
the corrections they make take over the place of previous words, which are
considered to be misplanned.
3. Collect data of speech errors from a talkshow on radio broadcasting or television.
Classify the data based on its type. Analyze the situation (context) in which the errors
exist.
Answer :
a. The examples of utterances containing silent pause in the talk show Face to Face
with Desi Anwar broadcasted in January to June 2012 are as follow:
(1) Robin Lim, an American midwife, in the 28th January 2012.
e.g. - It’s so many times [//] that we have that situation.
- People have a [//] very difficult time in infant formula gets water down.
(2) Ani Choying Drolma, a Nepal buddist nun and singer, in the 26th May 2012.
e.g. - Actually, the truth is to [//] get away from getting married.
- Understanding the simplicity of life, [you know], not being able to look into [//]
inside, [you know], not being able to [//] appreciate, and develop gratitude to
natural things [you know] the simple natural beautiful things.
b. The examples of utterances containing filled pause in the talk show Face to Face
with Desi Anwar broadcasted in January to June 2012 are as follow:
(1) Robin Lim, an American midwife, in the 28th January 2012.
e.g. - Right Livelihood is the [ah] alternative prize.
- I still cry about my sister [ah] I cry about her baby sometimes, because I know
her baby never got to taste this beautiful planet we live on.
(2) Sadao Watanabe, a Japanese jazz musician, in the 31st March 2012.
e.g. - She called me [ah] after a week [ah] for Indonesian [ah] people going to do a
concert for Japanese who had earthquake.
- I think [ah] at the art there is no ending.
c. The examples of utterances containing unretraced false start in the talk show Face
to Face with Desi Anwar broadcasted in January to June 2012 are as follow:
(1) Robin Lim, an American midwife, in the 28th January 2012.
e.g. - I [\\] we have lots of donors in Bali fortunately, they leaves a little bit of
money in donation box.
- Him [\\] he sends me a package with a sum of puppet.
(2) Sadao Watanabe, a Japanese jazz musician, in the 31st March 2012
e.g. - After earthquake we had a big shock and the [\\] I don’t know what to do to
let my profession to [\\] for the people.
- Everything I want to [ah] give something (for) to children, and share the time to
[\\] for the future.
d. The examples of utterances containing correction in the talk show Face to Face
with Desi Anwar broadcasted in January to June 2012 are as follow:
(1) Robin Lim, an American midwife, in the 28th January 2012.
e.g. - Sometimes things get tough - I mean we know as you get closer and closer
to fully dilation and ready to deliver the baby, the pain get more frequent and
more intense.
- All of the love that the midwife share with the [/] with the woman and with the
baby just comes right back -I mean the love I’m feeling for you right now I’m
seeing reflected back in your eyes, and it makes me strong, makes me really
happy.
(2) John Key, a New Zealand prime minister, in the 28th April 2012.
e.g. - The culture - I mean the Maori culture is the indigenous culture here.
- We see ourselves as a part of Asia -I mean as from the government point of view and
the strategy to much integrate with Asia