Introduction to Speech-language Pathology

Unit 1- Speech, Language & Communication

Sounds Forms Clauses Meanings Language

system use
and and of various
words sentences kinds

Speech
▪ the communication or expression of thoughts in spoken words
[Merriam Webster Dictionary]
▪ Speech is how we say sounds and words. It is a verbal means of communicating.
▪ It is the most widely used means of human communication.
▪ Speech is a motor activity which requires very precise neuromuscular coordination.
▪ Speech involves the following components and these components enhance the meaning
of the message:
• Articulation: motor production of speech sounds
• Fluency: the flow of speaking including rate and rhythm
• Voice: vocal quality, pitch, loudness, and resonance
▪ Speech is not the only means of face-to-face communication. Non-speech movements
such as gestures, facial expressions, and body posture is also used to convey messages.
Humans are the only species that can produce a variety and complex speech sounds. This is
because of the unique structures of the human vocal tract.

Language
▪ Language can be defined as a complex and dynamic system of conventional symbols
that is used in various modes for thought and communication.
 ▪Language can be defined as a socially shared code or conventional system for
representing concepts using arbitrary symbols and rule-governed combinations of those
symbols.
▪ Example: English, French, Tamil, Hindi, Malayalam - each has its own unique
symbols and rules for symbol combination
▪ Language is rule governed and has five linguistic parameters:
• Phonology
• Morphology
• Syntax
• Semantics
• Pragmatics
Communication
▪ a process by which information is exchanged between individuals through a common
system of symbols, signs, or behavior.
▪ exchange of information [Merriam Webster Dictionary]
▪ Communication is the active process of exchanging information and ideas.
Communication involves both understanding and expression. Forms of expression may
include personalized movements, gestures, objects, vocalizations, verbalizations, signs,
pictures, symbols, printed words, and output from augmentative and alternative (AAC)
devices.
▪ When individuals communicate effectively, they are able to express needs, wants,
feelings, and preferences that others can understand. [Beukelman & Mirenda, 2013]
▪ Communication is the process that consists of two or more people sharing information
including facts, thoughts, ideas, and feelings.
▪ It refers to any way that we convey information from one person to another.
• Babies communicate basic wants through crying
• Deaf people communicate through sign language/gestures
• we use e-mails, text messages, phone calls
• We use body movements – waving, smiling, raising eye brows
▪ Speech and language are only a portion of communication.
▪ Other aspects of communication that may enhance or change the linguistic code can be
classified as paralinguistic, nonlinguistic, and metalinguistic.
 ▪ Paralinguistic codes, including intonation, stress or emphasis, speed or rate of delivery,
and pause or hesitation, are superimposed on speech to signal attitude or emotion. All
components of the signal are integrated to produce the meaning. Paralinguistic
mechanisms are called suprasegmental devices because they can change the form and
meaning of a sentence by acting across elements, or segments, of a sentence.
▪ Nonlinguistic cues include gestures, body posture, facial expression, eye contact, head
and body movement, and physical distance or proxemics. The effectiveness of these
devices varies with users and between users.
▪ Metalinguistic skills are the abilities to talk about language, analyze it, think about it,
judge it, and see it as an entity separate from its content. For example, learning to read
and write depends on metalinguistic awareness of the component units of language—
sounds, words, phrases, and sentences. Metalinguistic skills also are used to judge the
correctness or appropriateness of the language we produce and receive, thus signaling
the status of the transmission or the success of communication.

Models of Language

Phonology
Phonology is the study of sound system in a language and across languages. It deals with how
sounds are organized and function in a particular language; such as the inventory of phonemes
(vowels and consonants) in that language, how these phonemes are organized to convey
meaning, and the rules (Phonotactics) pertaining to the organization (how phonemes can or
cannot be organized).
Phone

• A phone is any distinct speech sound that is uttered, regardless of whether the exact
sound is critical to the meanings of words.
Example: the words "madder" and "matter" obviously are composed of
distinct phonemes; however, in American English, both words are pronounced almost
identically, which means that their phones are the same, or at least very close in the
acoustic domain.
Phonemes

• Phonemes are the basic or smallest linguistic unit of sound that can be arranged to form
appropriate words and bring about a change in the meaning.
• It is the minimal contrastive unit of speech sound.
Example: Eg. bill - pill
Allophones

• Allophones are variations of a single phoneme.

Example:
o the sound /l/ is realized differently in “black” and “like”
o /t/ sound in the word “hit”, “tip”, and “little” are allophones
• The occurrence of one allophone rather than another is usually determined by its
position in the word (initial, medial, final) or by its phonetic environment.

Morphology
• Morphology: The component of language that deals with the study of words
(formation, structure, and relationships to other words).
• Lexicology: It is the study of how words make up the vocabulary of a language.
• Morpheme: A morpheme is the smallest grammatical unit and is indivisible without
violating the meaning or producing meaningless units. Therefore, dog is a single
morpheme because d and og are meaningless alone. If we split the word into do and g,
we have a similar situation, because there is nothing in dog that includes the meaning
of do, and g is meaningless alone. Most words in English consist of one or two
morphemes.
• Paravaigal in Tamil is a word with two morphs – ‘paravai’ and ‘gal’
• Allomorph: Morph that has a unique set of grammatical or lexical features. Example:
In English {s}, {z} and {iz) are allomorphs of plural morpheme.
Free and Bound morpheme

• Free morphemes occur independently with own meaning. Example: {book}, {pick}
• Bound morphemes are added to a word to acquire meaning. Example: {s}, {ed}, {un}
• Free morphemes constitute the word as such, but bound morphemes never occur as
words, rather only as parts of words.
• Bound morphemes generally occur as affixes.

Syntax
• Syntax is the branch of linguistics that deals with the rules governing word arrangement
in the formation of phrases, clauses and sentences, or in other words, word order.
• Sequencing the SVO (subject-verb-object) pattern is common in most of the languages.
In certain languages, especially Dravidian languages the pattern is SOV.
o In English, it is SVO - Ram (Subject) is reading (Verb) a book (Object)
 o In Tamil, it is SOV - Raman (Subject) booku (Object) padikkiraan (Verb)
• Study of inflections – changes in words to indicate their change in a sentence. This
aspect is part of Morphosyntax.
For eg., Raamanaal, raamanukku, raamanukkaaga padithen, padippen

Semantics
Semantics is the study of meaning in language. It is the study of interpretation of signs and
symbols within circumstances or contexts. It is the level at which we attempt to analyze how
meanings are expressed and understood.

• Homonymy: words sharing the same pronunciation but with different meanings.
• Synonymy: words with similar meaning.
• Antonymy: words that are inherently opposite in meaning.
• Hypernymy: words sharing the same semantic field. E.g. eagle, crow, peacock are
hyponyms of the hypernym “bird”.
• Hyponymy: words with more specific meaning than a general term applicable to it.
E.g. “spoon” is a hyponym of “cutlery”.
• Content words and function words:
o Words are often categorized into content words and function words based on
their roles in a sentence.
o Content words carry significant meaning and convey the primary information
in a sentence. They are the main building blocks of meaning. Categories
include:
▪ Nouns: Represent people, places, things, or ideas (e.g., "dog," "city,"
"happiness").
▪ Verbs: Indicate actions, processes, or states (e.g., "run," "exist," "think").
▪ Adjectives: Describe or modify nouns (e.g., "blue," "tall," "interesting").
▪ Adverbs: Modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs, often indicating
manner, time, or degree (e.g., "quickly," "very," "yesterday").
o Function words serve a grammatical purpose and help to structure sentences,
but they carry little lexical meaning on their own. Categories include:
▪ Prepositions: Indicate relationships between nouns (e.g., "in," "on,"
"under").
▪ Conjunctions: Connect clauses or words (e.g., "and," "but," "or").
▪ Articles: Define nouns (e.g., "the," "a," "an").
▪ Pronouns: Replace nouns (e.g., "he," "they," "which").
▪ Auxiliary Verbs: Help form verb tenses, moods, or voices (e.g., "is,"
"have," "will").

Pragmatics and discourse are two interconnected subfields of linguistics that focus on how
language is used in communication.
• Pragmatics is the study of how context influences the interpretation of meaning in
language. It examines how speakers use language in real-life situations, considering
factors like social context, the relationship between speakers, cultural norms, and the
intentions behind utterances. While semantics deals with the literal meaning of words
and sentences, pragmatics focuses on how these meanings change depending on the
context in which they are used.
Concepts in Pragmatics:
1. Speech Acts: A core concept in pragmatics is the idea of speech acts — actions
performed via utterances. For instance, when someone says, "Can you pass the salt?"
they are not just asking a question; they are requesting that the listener hand over the
salt. Speech acts can be:
o Assertives (statements of fact or belief),
o Directives (requests, commands),
o Commissives (promises, offers),
o Expressives (apologies, congratulations),
o Declarations (making a statement that brings about a change)
2. Deixis: Deictic expressions (such as "this," "there," "now," "I," "you") rely on the
context to be understood. For example, "I will meet you there" makes sense only when
we know the time and place being referred to.
3. Implicature: This refers to meanings that are not explicitly stated but are implied by a
speaker’s utterance. For example, if someone says, "It’s getting late," they may be
implying that they want to leave, even though they haven’t directly said it.
4. Politeness: Pragmatics explores how politeness strategies (such as indirectness,
mitigation, or formality) affect communication. For example, "Could you please open
the window?" is more polite than simply saying, "Open the window."
5. Context: The meaning of a statement often depends on its context — social, cultural,
physical, or psychological. Pragmatics investigates how these contexts influence the
interpretation of language.
• Discourse refers to language use beyond the sentence level, involving connected
speech or writing. It examines how larger units of meaning, like conversations,
narratives, or written texts, are structured and organized. Discourse analysis studies
how speakers or writers construct meaning, manage turn-taking in conversations, and
convey their messages coherently and cohesively.

Concepts in Discourse:
1. Coherence: This refers to how a text or conversation makes sense overall. Coherence is
achieved when ideas in discourse are logically and thematically connected. For
example, in a conversation, coherence can be maintained by referring to previous
topics, using relevant information, and avoiding contradictions.
 2. Cohesion: This refers to the linguistic devices (like pronouns, conjunctions, and
transitional phrases) that tie parts of a conversation or text together. For example, in the
sentence, "I was tired. However, I went to the gym anyway," the word "however"
provides cohesion between the two sentences.
3. Turn-taking: In conversation, discourse analysis looks at how speakers take turns, how
interruptions are managed, and how people negotiate meaning. Conversationalists often
use cues, like pauses or rising intonation, to signal when they are about to finish
speaking or expect a response.
4. Discourse Markers: These are words or phrases (such as "well," "you know," "like,"
"so," "anyway") that help manage the flow of conversation or discourse, signalling
shifts in topic, responses, or emphasis.
5. Genres of Discourse: Different forms of discourse are used in different settings. For
instance, academic discourse has its own rules and conventions, as does casual
conversation, political speech, or business communication. Each genre has different
expectations and structures.
6. Narrative Structure: Discourse analysis can also focus on how stories or narratives are
told, looking at how speakers organize events, describe characters, or build tension and
resolution in a storyline.
Properties of Language
1. Language is a Social Tool
Language exists to help people communicate. It's a shared code that allows us to express our
thoughts, ideas, and emotions to others. The words and phrases we use are shaped by our
culture and the situation, and they also shape how we think.
• Example: The sentence "How’s my little girl feeling today?" fits in a caring, familiar
setting—not in a formal event with strangers.
• Without communication, language has no purpose—it doesn’t exist in isolation.

2. Language is a Rule-Governed System

Though we often speak casually or ungrammatically, all language users follow internalized
rules without even realizing it. These rules guide how we form words and sentences so others
can understand us.
• Linguistic Competence: Our internal knowledge of language rules (even if we can’t
explain them).
• Linguistic Performance: How we actually use language, which may be influenced by
tiredness, emotion, or situation.
• Even young children learn to use nouns and verbs correctly before they can define
them!

3. Language is Generative
Language is creative and productive. With a limited number of words and rules, we can create
an unlimited number of new sentences.
 • You can say: “Large elephants danced gracefully beneath the street lights”—a sentence
you likely never heard before, but you still understand it.
• Children don’t memorize all sentences—they learn the rules and apply them to create
new ones.

Other Important Properties

• Reflexivity: We can use language to talk about language itself (e.g., correcting
grammar).
• Displacement: We can talk about things that are not happening right now (past, future,
imaginary).
• Arbitrariness: The connection between words and their meanings is mostly random.
The word “cat” has no natural link to the animal—it’s agreed upon by speakers.

Characteristics of language
▪ Language is a means of communication
Language is a very important means of communication between humans. ‘A’ can
communicate his or her ideas, emotions, beliefs or feelings to ‘B’ as they share a
common code that makes up the language. Humans also use other forms of
communication such as gestures, signs, writings etc., but those are limited and depends
on language. It is through language we store knowledge, transfer it to the next
generation and yoke the present, past and future.
▪ Language is arbitrary
Language is arbitrary in the sense that there is no inherent relation between the words
of a language and their meanings or ides conveyed by them.
For example, there is no reason why a female adult is called woman in English, sthree
in Hindi, aurat in Urudu, Zen in Persian. Selection of these words are purely arbitrary.
▪ Language is a system of systems
Language is not an amorphous, disorganised, or chaotic combination of sounds. Rather,
sounds are arranged in certain fixed or established, systematic order to form meaningful
units or words. Words are arranged in a particular system to frame acceptable
meaningful sentences. These systems operate at two level: phonological and
syntactical. Thus, language is called as a system of systems.
▪ Language is primarily vocal
Language is primarily made up of vocal sounds, produced by a physiological
articulatory mechanism in the human body.
▪ Language differs from animal communication
Language is primarily human and in that sense it is species-specific. Also, all human
beings uniformly possess language, and thus it is species-uniform. Language is a form
of social behaviour
A child learns to speak the language of the community or the group in which he or she
is placed or grows. Thus, language is a form of social behaviour.
▪ Language is a symbol system
Humans communicate using symbols (speech or writing). The receiver of the message,
who shares a common code with the sender of the message, decodes this message sent
 in the form of symbols and interprets the meaning. Different languages use different
symbol system.
▪ Productivity
Language is creative and productive. We can produce an infinite number of sentences
with the knowledge of grammar and syntax of the language.
▪ Interchangeability
It is an important characteristic of human language that it permits a speaker to become
listener and vice versa without impairing the function of language.

Animal communication differs from human communication in the following ways:

a) Human convey and receive an infinite number of messages through space
whereas animal communication system is extremely limited and undeveloped.
For example, animals are able to convey to their fellow animals if they are
hungry or afraid. A bee can convey the distance or direction through its dance.
b) Language makes use of clearly distinguishable discrete, separately identifiable
symbols, while animal communication systems are often continuous or non-
discrete. For example, one can distinguish between /k/, /a/, /t/ in the word cat,
but cannot identify the symbols in the long humming sound that a bee produces
or crow produces.
c) Animal communication systems are closed systems that permit of no change,
modification or addition. A bee’s dance or crow sound today is same as it was
200 years ago. But language is changing, growing everyday and new words
continue to be added. Thus, language is open ended, modifiable and extendable.
d) Human language is far more structurally complex than animal communication.
For example, English has 44 sounds that join in different groups to form
thousands of words, and words arranged into different sentences. There is no
such structural complexity in a lamb’s bleating or monkey’s cry.
e) Human language is non-instinctive; every human child must learn language
from the elders or peers in the society. This learning is an important part in the
acquisition of language. However, for animals their knowledge is not learned,
its inherited or inbuilt. For example, a bee never learns geometry to make hives,
it is an inherited skill.
f) Animal communication is limited to or related to their immediate time and
place, here and now or near about. It does not contain any information about the
past or future or events takes place in the multidimensional setups. Human
language users can produce messages pertaining to the present, past and future,
near or distant places, i.e. in a multidimensional setting. This property is called
displacement.