Lecture 1: The Speech Process

Means of conveying a message:

1. Visual: sign language, waving flags, flashing

mirrors, written message, etc.
2. Audible: fog-horn, Morse code, drum, or
simply
spoken form, by word of mouth the most frequent
means of communication
PHONETICS is concerned with the human noises
by which the message is actualized, or given
audible shape: the nature of those noises, their
combinations and their function in relation to the
message.

The most common ways to

communicate
Speaking

Writing

Body language

Visual images

ve
i
G

e
th

Opportunity to rethink
or rephrase an utterance

Tend to
use

e
th

Dynamic and
transient

an

SPOKEN LANGUAGE
Ch
ar
a
fo cte
r b riz
ein ed
g

Spontaneous
and instant

is

interaction where both

participants are present.

Interruptions
and overlaps
are common.

Informal
vocabulary

Clear expression due to

careful sentence structure,

WRITTEN LANGUAGE

Time lag between

production
and reception

so
No visual cues,
no immediate
feedback

e
us

Th
er
ei

punctuation
and formatting.

e
th

ed
z
ni
a
d
rg
O an

as

Writer is usually distant

from the reader

Formal vocabulary,
including words which
are not normally
used in spoken language

THE SPEECH PROCESS

Definition: The activity of human organisms by

which the sounds of the language are produced,
transmitted through the air and received.
In essence, speech is COMMUNICATION, i.e.
the exchange of information by means of
auditory sensory stimulation.
There are two participants in the process: the
SPEAKER and the LISTENER (or the
HEARER).

Communication process model:

C Creative Function
F Forwarding Function
H Hearing Function
NP Nervous Pathways
VO Vocal Organs

The speaker:

CREATIVE FUNCTION takes place in the BRAIN

the first organ set in motion. Here the NEED for
communication arises, the speaker decides on the
MEANS by which to convey the message and the FORM
of the message to be conveyed.
The brain stores a huge amount of linguistic knowledge:
phonological
(phoneme
inventory
and
rules),
morphological, lexical, syntactic, pragmatic.
FORWARDING FUNCTION starts in the brain, which
sends out patterned instructions along the NERVOUS
PATHWAYS to the muscles which move the speech
organs.
MUSCULAR ACTIVITY the lungs and speech organs
are set in motion producing a variety of speech sounds.

There are THREE distinguishable

phases of the creative function:

a need for communication;

decision on the medium to be used;
decision on the form the message will take.
E.g. Have another cup? Would you like another cup?
Pass your cup. Have some more.
This was the PSYCHOLOGICAL STAGE of the
speech process on the part of the speaker.

The air channel

The

speakers vocal organs have set the

surrounding air in motion the muscular
movement has been transformed into
SOUND WAVES which spread out in
every direction.
ACOUSTIC STAGE.
Sounds are physical objects with physical
characteristics like any other wave.

The listener

The waves of varying pressure reach the outer EAR

of the listener PHYSIOLOGICAL STAGE.
By means of the ear-drum the physical movement is
conveyed further into the INNER EAR where it is
transformed into nervous impulses again.
These impulses are sent along NERVOUS
PATHWAYS from the ear to the brain of the listener.
NEUROLOGICAL STAGE
In the brain the listener decodes the message and the
brain performs creative function again.

The ear

Perception
A complex process the incoming signal is
full of various noises, which are efficiently
analyzable as clear linguistic units
phonemes.
E.g. Pat must have been mad to let Tim...
/p&t mVst h&v bi;n m&d tU let tIm/
[ph&?mVst@vbImm&dt@le?thIm]
Problem:

acoustic characteristics do
not translate directly into linguistic
units.

Perception takes place in several stages:

Auditory stage (based directly on the physical
input) we take in the raw signal with all its
acoustic properties.
Phonetic stage ignoring the difference between
two different speech signals and identifying them
as one speech sound/phoneme (/g/ in /gi/ or /gu/)
- CATEGORICAL PERCEPTION.
Phonological stage E.g , we hear the word
[stvi:t] in English, we rule it out because we
know the initial /stv/ sequence is not acceptable
in English, and we interpret it as the sequence of
phonemes /stri:t/ instead.

Lexical, syntactic and semantic stage we apply

our knowledge of these fields when decoding a
message. We can rule out things like:
(lexical nonsense) Accidents carry out honey
between the house.
(syntactic/grammatical) Men is on strike. Man are
on strike.
(semantic/pragmatic) My wives have just told
me

Ordering of stages of perception: Top-down

and bottom-up models of perception
If

speech perception starts from the

acoustic/auditory signal and goes to the
higher levels of analysis bottom-up
model of perception.
However, does speech
perception/cognition necessarily go in
this direction?

Experiment: word pronounced as

/k&r@kt@`rIs*Ik/, where * indicates a segment
was not heard by the listener, due to a noise of
some kind.
Does the listener know which word was uttered?
What if the listener hears: /k&**kt@`rIs*Ik/?
Another example: a speaker fails to hear /s/ in
the sentence He likes it, and hear it as /hi lAIk*
It/.
Provided the listener is a native/proficient
speaker of English, what does the listener
assume he/she has heard?
What can be concluded from the above
examples?

 A number

of other experiments have

shown that perception is not so simple:
While listening, we also actively use our
lexical, grammatical or pragmatic
knowledge in order to figure out the
phonetic and phonological levels.
Sometimes, whole phonemes or
sequences of phonemes are restored
the listener assumes he/she has
heard something that has not been
uttered.

 That

shows that perception also goes

from the higher levels top-down
model.
Generally, there is a constant interaction
between the levels we have to rely on
the acoustic signal, but we also have to
use our knowledge of vocabulary,
grammar, etc. in order to comprehend a
message.

SUMMARY

Speech process is a complex activity happening

between the speaker and the hearer. It consists of
the following recognizable stages:
1. Psychological stage
2. Neurological stage
3. Physiological stage
4. Physical/acoustic stage AIR CHANNEL
5. Physiological stage
6. Neurological stage
7. Psychological stage