THE DIMENSIONS OF

HUMAN
COMMUNICATION
 I have used some other sources in
my lectures for this class:**
 Owens, R.E., Farinella, K.A., & Metz (2015). Introduction to
communication disorders: A lifespan evidence-based
perspective (5th ed.). Boston: Pearson.

 Justice, L.M., & Redle, E.E. (2014). Communication sciences

and disorders: A clinical evidence-based approach (3rd ed.).
New Jersey: Pearson Education

 Hulit, L.M., Fahey, K.R., & Howard, M.R. (2015). Born to talk:
An introduction to speech and language development (5th ed.).
Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

 Owens, R.E. (2014). Languge disorders: A functional approach

to assessment and intervention (6th ed.). New Jersey: Pearson
Education.
 Roseberry-McKibbin, C., & Hegde, M.N.
(2015). Advanced review of speech-
language pathology: Study guide for
PRAXIS and comprehensive examination
(4th ed.). Austin, TX: Pro-Ed.

 This is in press, and will be out in 2015.

 A terrific resource:**
 Paul, R., & Norbury, C.F. (2012). Language
disorders from infancy through
adolescence: Listening, speaking, writing,
and communicating (4th ed.). St. Louis, MO:
Elsevier.
 And workshops I have
attended for CEUs:**
ASHA 2013, Chicago

ASHA Schools Conference Long Beach, 2013

 CSHA, 2014, San Francisco

 ASHA Schools Conference, Pittsburgh, 7/14

 Why is all of this information
about child language
development important?**
 We need to recgonize what is typical and
what is not typical so we can intervene as
early as possible in children’s lives
Over 70% of America’s
prisoners…
 I. COMMUNICATION**
 Definition: The process of sending and
receiving messages that serve to transmit
information between persons or groups

 Communicative competence occurs when

speakers effectively influence their listeners’
behaviors

 Most human interactions have an underlying

agenda
 II. VERBAL AND NONVERBAL
COMMUNICATION
 A. Nonverbal
Communication
 B. Verbal Communication**
 Involves the use of words to exchange
ideas

 Auditory-oral—spoken language

 Visual-graphic—written, pictures, gestures

(gestures that are systematic—e.g., sign
language)
C. Extralinguistic Aspects of
Verbal Communication
 III. SPEECH**
 Physical production of sounds to
communicate meaning through the
neuromuscular control of the structures of
the vocal tract

 Involves articulation, voice, resonation,

and fluency
 Phonology:**
 Study of the sound systems of a language

 We have the IPA

 English orthography is problematic:

 Bough, thought, rough, though, through

 IV. LINGUISTICS**
 Linguistics is the study of language

 We are most concerned with 2 types of

linguistics
Sociolinguistics…
Developmental linguistics…
 V. LANGUAGE**
 Language is the system of arbitrary verbal
symbols that speakers put in order
according to a conventional code to
communicate ideas and feelings or to
influence the behavior of others
Expressive language…
Receptive language…
Linguistic competence…**
 Refers to our
hypothetical,
unconscious linguistic
ability

 Represents speakers’
idealized, underlying
knowledge of their
language
 Linguistic performance…**
 Refers to a speaker’s
production of linguistic
units

 Influenced by limitations
such as fatigue, memory
lapses, distractions,
illness, etc.
 VI. THE LINGUISTIC
ASPECTS OF LANGUAGE
 A. Semantics
Semantics involves:
Paul & Norbury, 2012:
Word relations in semantics:**
 How do meanings of words
interact with each other?
 For example, we have antonyms,
which are opposites:**
 Binary antonyms-no middle
ground (alive vs. dead).

 Gradable antonyms: Represent

2 different points on a continuum
(attractive vs. homely)
 Synonyms:**
 Different words that carry similar meanings

 Scared/afraid

 Beautiful/pretty

 Hard/difficult
In therapy for LI (language impaired)
students:
 Semantic relations:**
 This term describes the role that each noun
in a sentence has in relation to the verb in
the sentence
For example, “Daddy” assumes 2
different semantic relations:**
 I’m looking for Daddy’s ball
(Daddy is the possessor)

 Daddy threw the ball (Daddy is the

agent or actor who instigated the
action)
Semantics also involves a
child’s knowledge of:**
 Words with multiple meanings (rock, pound)

 Deictic words whose referents change

depending on who is speaking (this, that, here,
there)

 Categories—mental constructs that allow a

child to group similar words together
The new Common Core State
Standards…
What categories can you think
of that a kindergartener might
need to know?
 B. Pragmatics**
 Practical use of language in social
interaction

 Focuses on the speaker’s achieving

a practical outcome through using
language as a tool
Speaker and listener roles differ due to social
context
Justice & Redle 2014 state that:
2 types of speech acts:
 Direct speech act:**
 Only has one interpretation

 “Please pass the butter.”

 Discourse:**
 Conversation;
extended
verbal
exchange on
some topic
Discourse involves:
 Youtube example:**
 In the following clip from Big Bang Theory
(Sheldon and Amy in car with Penny):

 Penny is driving Sheldon to meet Amy for

the first time—it is a first date

 What rules of discourse do Sheldon and

Amy violate?
Discourse also involves:
 C. Morphology**
 The study of minimal,
meaningful units of language

 Morphemes are the smallest

elements of language that
carry meaning

 Free morphemes stand alone

 Bound morphemes must be

attached to free morphemes to
carry meaning
 Types of Free Morphemes:**

 Grammatical morphemes/function
words: is, the, of, and, a, but

 Lexical morphemes/content words:

words that carry the “meat” 

 For example: cloud, university, taco,

student, Harry Potter, run, walk, write,
funny, crazy, blue
 Types of bound
morphemes:**
 Inflectional: alter the meaning of the free
morpheme to which they are attached
without deriving a new grammatical
category

 Usually these are suffixes (see p. 27) such

as plural –s, possessive –s, past tense –
ed, etc.
Derivational morphemes:
 In children’s language…**

 Inflectional
morphemes
appear before
derivational
morphemes
The new Common Core
State Standards
 With one girl, LaShon, a first
grade 6-year old…

We worked with her first grade language

arts book
 I would have LaShon read each page, and
we would talk about the vocabulary and
what it meant, focusing first on
comprehension and decoding
 Then we picked out words
from the text that had suffixes
 LaShon wrote them on the
board and underlined the
 She said she
suffixes
thought it was fun! 
 D. Syntax**
 1. Definition

 Specifies rules for sequencing or

ordering words to form phrases and
sentences

 Deals with rules for word order in a

language
2. Types of Sentences
McCormack et al., 2011 “A nationally representative
study of the association between communication
impairment at 4-5 years and children’s life activities”
Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research,
54, 1328-1348.
 Hayiou-Thomas, Dale, & Plomin (2014)
Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing
Research (June issue)
 Longitudinal study of 2,923 twin pairs in the
United Kingdom

 Questions: 1) Were parent referrals

accurate? And 2) did language problems at
age 4 predict language problems at age
12?
Findings of Hayiou-Thomas et
al.:
 Our job as speech-
language pathologists…