Speech Science Primer: Speech, Language, and Thought

Vocabulary flashcards covering the key terms, components, and conversion models of speech, language, and thought from Chapter 1 of the Speech Science Primer lecture.

Thought

An internal representation of experiences, ideas, attitudes, or memories that has not yet become an audible message.

Language

A complex, abstract, rule-governed symbolic communication system used to express messages.

Speech

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

Dissociated

Separated in function or affected differently, demonstrating that speech, language, and thought can operate independently.

Articulator Gestures

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

Tangible

A characteristic of speech indicating that its movements and acoustic output can be observed, recorded, and measured.

Acquisition by Age Four

A broad developmental milestone indicating that children usually develop a substantial speech system early, rather than a rigid diagnostic cutoff.

Semantics

The component of language concerning meaning, including word references and how meanings combine within sentences.

Syntax

The linguistic rules governing how words are arranged into phrases or sentences to establish relationships such as who performs and who receives an action.

Morphology

The component of language that addresses meaningful units and structural word formations, such as plurals and past tense markings.

Morpheme

A linguistic unit that carries meaning or grammatical information within a word.

Phonology

The sound system and structural sound patterns in a language, addressing which sound contrasts distinguish words.

Aphasia

A language difficulty resulting from an acquired brain injury that may impair word retrieval, comprehension, reading, or writing without eliminating internal thought.

Critical Period Hypothesis

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

Learning Theories

Historical language acquisition approaches associated with Skinner and a mower that highlight rewards, punishments, reinforcement, experience, and learned associations.

Innateness Theory

A language acquisition theory associated with Cromsky emphasizing a built-in human capacity for acquiring language and abstract rules.

Linguistic Competence

A speaker's underlying knowledge of the language system, which is distinct from their momentary performance.

Buffer

A temporary holding or organizing stage in the production model that keeps upcoming portions of an utterance accessible as speech unfolds.

Timing

A parameter in the speech production model concerning when events occur and how long they take.

Prosody

Utterance-level speech features such as stress and intonation that can be influenced by the intended message.

Feature to Command Conversion

The first conversion stage in speech production where planned abstract phonetic features become neuromotor commands sent to muscles.

Command to Contraction Conversion

The second conversion stage in speech production where motor commands trigger a myomotor pattern of muscle contractions.

Contraction to Shape Conversion

The third conversion stage where patterns of muscle activity produce an articulatory representation consisting of vocal tract shapes and excitation.

Shape to Sound Conversion

The fourth conversion stage where vocal tract configurations and excitation source activity produce an acoustic representation of spoken sound.

Excitation

The source activity that supplies the acoustic energy needed to produce sound in the vocal tract.

Acoustic Representation

The measurable spoken sound and pressure wave output produced at the final stage of speech production.