L11 - Language Production Flashcards
(24 cards)
What are the four main learning objectives for Lecture 11?
- Examples of speech errors. 2. Theories of speech production. 3. Problems in aphasia. 4. How speakers tailor communication.
How fast do we typically speak and what strategies reduce speech planning demands?
Around 150 words per minute. Strategies: preformulation (reusing phrases) and under-specification (simplified expressions).
How does intoxication affect speech production?
It increases dysfluencies, slows speech, and reduces richness and creativity.
What are the two levels at which speech planning occurs?
Clause level (e.g., entire sentence) and phrase level (group of words expressing one idea).
What are common types of speech errors?
Word exchange, sound/phoneme exchange, spoonerisms, semantic substitution, morpheme exchange, number agreement.
What are the key assumptions of the spreading-activation theory (Dell, 1986)?
Parallel processing across semantic, lexical, and phonological levels with interactive feedback.
What is a key strength of spreading-activation theory?
Explains interaction between levels and accounts for speech errors.
What is a weakness of spreading-activation theory?
Unclear extent of interaction and reduced errors under high processing demand.
What are the key assumptions of the WEAVER++ model (Levelt et al., 1999)?
Feed-forward, serial stages: lexical concepts → lemmas → word forms (morphemes/phonemes).
What is a key strength of WEAVER++?
Simple and testable model focused on timing.
What is a major weakness of WEAVER++?
Lacks level interaction; underestimates speech error frequency.
What language issue does WEAVER++ explain?
The tip-of-the-tongue state: semantic access without successful phonological retrieval.
What are Broca’s and Wernicke’s aphasia?
Broca’s: non-fluent speech, intact comprehension. Wernicke’s: fluent but meaningless speech, poor comprehension.
What are the limitations of the Broca/Wernicke distinction?
Overlap in brain areas and broader cognitive issues like attention and memory are often involved.
What is anomia?
Impaired naming despite intact comprehension; phonological retrieval issue.
What is agrammatism?
Short, ungrammatical speech with missing function words; lexical-level issue.
What is jargon aphasia?
Fluent but incoherent speech with word substitutions and neologisms; phonological-level issue.
What is audience design in speech?
Tailoring speech to the listener’s knowledge and perspective.
What is common ground in communication?
Shared knowledge between speaker and listener, used to aid understanding.
What are four tools used in audience design?
- Syntactic priming. 2. Gestures. 3. Prosodic cues. 4. Discourse markers.
What is syntactic priming?
Tendency to repeat sentence structures heard recently (e.g., passive voice copying).
How do gestures support communication?
Aid both listener comprehension and speaker planning, even when unseen (Horbury & Guttentag, 1998).
What are prosodic cues and when are they used?
Cues like rhythm, stress, and intonation; used when meaning is ambiguous.
What are discourse markers and their function?
Words like ‘um’ or ‘you know’; signal hesitation or check understanding.
