Speech Science Primer Chapter 1: Speech, Language, and Thought

Vocabulary flashcards covering the components of speech, language, and thought, historical acquisition theories, and the physiological and acoustic models of speech production from Chapter 1.

Dissociated

Separated in function or affected differently, demonstrating that systems such as speech, language, and thought can operate or be impaired independently.

Speech

An efficient way of communicating through coordinated physical movements that produce an audible acoustic signal.

Articulatory Gestures

Movement or positioning actions involving anatomical structures used in speech, such as the lips, tongue, jaw, or velum.

Tangible

A descriptor for speech indicating that its physical articulatory movements and acoustic output can be directly observed, recorded, and measured.

Language

A complex, abstract, rule-governed communication system whose underlying messages can be expressed through speech, writing, or sign.

Semantics

The component of language concerning meaning, including what individual words refer to and how meanings combine in phrases or sentences.

Syntax

The component of language governing how words are ordered and arranged into phrases or sentences to determine grammatical roles.

Morphology

The linguistic component concerning word structure and the meaningful units that compose words.

Morpheme

A minimal linguistic unit within a word that carries meaning or grammatical information, such as a base root or plural and past-tense markers.

Phonology

The linguistic component concerning the sound system, sound patterns, and meaningful sound contrasts in a language.

Thought

An internal representation of experiences, memories, intentions, attitudes, and perceptions that can exist without being converted into overt words.

Aphasia

Difficulty with language following an acquired brain injury that can impair word finding, comprehension, reading, or writing while leaving underlying thought intact.

Critical Period Hypothesis

A proposal associated with Lindbergh suggesting that the capacity for acquiring language is especially favorable during a limited developmental window.

Learning Theories

Historical approaches to language acquisition associated with Skinner and Mower emphasizing reinforcement, associations, experience, rewards, and punishments.

Innateness Theory

A theoretical approach associated with Cromsky emphasizing a built-in, biological human capacity for acquiring language and generating novel sentences.

Linguistic Competence

A person's underlying, internalized knowledge of the language system, distinct from their momentary overt production.

Linguistic Performance

A person's actual language use in a specific moment, which can be subject to hesitations, memory lapses, errors, or fatigue.

Buffer

A temporary holding and organizing stage in the thought-to-speech model that keeps upcoming portions of a message accessible while earlier parts are produced.

Timing

A speech control dimension determining when articulatory events occur and how long they take.

Prosody

Speech features spanning across an utterance, such as intonation and stress patterns, influenced by the speaker's attitude and intent.

Phonetic Features

Abstract specifications of a sound target, including properties such as voicing, place, and manner of articulation.

Feature to Command Conversion

The initial conversion in speech sound generation where planned phonetic features are transformed into neuromotor commands.

Neuromotor Representation

The stage in the speech production model consisting of neural motor commands directed to the speech musculature.

Command to Contraction Conversion

The conversion in the speech production model where neural motor signals elicit physical muscle contractions.

Myomotor Representation

The stage in the speech production model defined by patterns of muscle contractions.

Contraction to Shape Conversion

The conversion in the speech production model where muscle contractions position speech structures to establish vocal tract shapes and excitation.

Excitation

The respiratory and laryngeal source activity that provides acoustic energy to the vocal tract.

Articulatory Representation

The stage in speech sound generation defined by the specific vocal tract configurations and excitation source activity.

Shape to Sound Conversion

The final stage of the speech production model where vocal tract shapes and acoustic source activity create the acoustic output.

Acoustic Representation

The measurable spoken sound consisting of audible pressure waves traveling through the air to reach a listener.