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 brain’s
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, Broca’s area,
Wernicke’s 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 tongue-slips,

 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 That’s so she’ll 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 didn’t explain this clarefully enough. (carefully enough).
 (6) Deletion I’ll just get up and mutter intelligibly. (unintelligibly).
 (7) Substitution At low speeds it’s 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 Freud’s 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 co-articulation.
 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 Chomsky’s 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.