Language Production and Conversation

Language Production and Conversation

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In linguistics, language production is the production of spoken or written language. It describes all of the stages between having a concept, and translating that concept into linguistic form

Stages of Language Production Stages of Language Production: conceptualization, formulation, articulation, self-monitoring    

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Conceptualization: a conceptual representation of what to say Encode message into linguistic form. Select words to express concepts Organize words syntactically to convey a message Articulation: generate auditory/written/signed sequence. Sound goes from speaker's mouth to hearer's ear Speech is decoded into linguistic form Linguistic form is decoded into meaning

Message generation 

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Message-conceptual representtaion independent of particular words Take into account: level of politeness, speech acts (question, command, etc.) Register (slang vs. Formal) Reference Listener knowledge

Word selection 

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Lexical access: Look up words in mental dictionary. Pick word that you want to say, based on semantic features. Overcome competition from semantically similar words. Phonological features come into play, too. Sentences get built when words are selected. Gramatical encoding. Adult english Speaking vocabulary:........45.000-60.000 words Speaking rate....................120-150 words/min Selection error rate..........1 in 1000 words

Word organization 

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Apply syntactic and discourse rules to determine a word sequence: e.g. The glass is filled with water. vs. Water fills the glass. Function words Inflectional morphemes agreement

Word organization affetcs future word organization in sentence production  

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Syntactic priming: The voice of a context sentence affects how a picture is described: Active voice/passive voice in the context

Self-monitoring 

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Production is not a one-way transmission of messages. Speakers and writers are quickly capable of readjusting a message at the stages of conceptualization, formulation, or articulation, depending on where they noticed the brakdown in production occured. The fact that native speakers can monitor and quickly correct mistakes in linguistic output proves Chomsky’s claim that there is a distinction between performance and competence.

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There are two main types of research into speech production. One type focuses on using the analysis of speech errors. The other looks at reaction-time data from picture-naming latencies.

Research into production 

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Analysis of speech errors has found that not all are random, but rather systematic and fall into several categories. Although speech production is very fast, (2 words per second) the error rate of the utterances are relatively rare (less than 1/1000) and those errors are categorized as follows: Anticipation: The word is in the speaker's mind and ready to be spoken, but the speaker says it too quickly. This could be because the speaker is planning and holding words in their mind. Reading list>leading list Preservation: The word retains characteristics of a word said previously in a sentence:  Taddle Tennis instead of Paddle Tennis Blending: More than one word is being considered and the two intended items "blend" into a single item, perhaps implying the speaker is waffling between a few word options.  The child is looking to be spaddled instead of spanked or paddled Addition: adding of linguistics material, resulting in words like implossible, blue bug>blue blug

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Substitution: a whole word of related meaning is replacing another. These errors can be far apart from another, or target words, and are generally grammatically consistent and accurate. 

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Malapropism: a lay term referring to the incorrect substitution of words. It is a reference to a character Mrs Malaprop from Sheridan's The Rivals.   

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at low speed it's too light (instead of heavy)

Makes no delusions to the past. The pineapple of perfection. I have interceded another letter from the fellow.

Spoonerism: switching the letters from words. For example, the phrase slips of the tongue could become tips of the slung. You have missed my history lectures> You have hissed my mistery lectures You have wasted the whole term.>You have tasted the whole worm. The dear old queen.>The queer old dean. Is the bean dizzy?

Reverend William A. Spooner

Why Speech Errors? Freudian theory of production errors: Errors represent unconscious beliefs or desires: repressed thoughts of some kind. Last night my grandmother (died !) lied.  Psycholinguistic Perspective: Speech errors provide insights into the workings of the language system. a (real !) meal mystery (anticipation) he pulled a (tantrum !) pantrum (perseveration) 

It’s my pleasure to prevent, er...present the next person on the panel. (infer that the speaker objects to the person) 

Disfluences   

I ahve to remember to...um..leave a note. Filler: um, er, uh, etc. Phoneme, word and phrase repetition.

Syntactic Level Errors Syntactic level errors are slips involving whole words.  Syntactic Category Constraint: Slips involve words from the same lexical category.  (I loveverb to dance !)- I danceverb to loveverb  Exchange the (sun !) -sky is in the sky  Anticipation 

verb

noun

noun

Morphemic Level Errors Morphemic level errors involve an incorrect association between a stem and an inflection. Stranding Error: The inflection gets stranded in its original correct position, whereas the intended stem is moved. Closed-class items tend to get stranded, whereas open-class items tend to get moved.  • (rules of word formation !) words of rule formation.  • She's already (packed two trunks !) trunked two  packs.

Language Production: Conversation         

1.LISA: Hey Eva there's something I wanted to tell you 2.EVA: mhm 3.LISA: My brother is coming to town for a visit next week 4.EVA: How nice 5. LISA: and you know, he broke up with that awful Julie *last* week 6.EVA: *how* very nice., when's he getting here? 7.LISA: next Monday 8.EVA: Want to go shopping and help me pick out something really attractive before Monday?

Features of Conversation   

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Personnel: Participants in a conversation Speaker(s) and addressee(s) Common Ground: Knowledge and beliefs shared by the personnel Assumptions about what the other(s) know (s)/believe(s)

The Production of Written Language Three Phases of the Writing Process: - Planning: Setting goals, formulating and organizing ideas. - Translating: Sentence generation. - Reviewing: Evaluating and revising the text.