Locutionary, Illocutionary, and Perlocutionary Acts: Threefold Distinction
Although the process of producing speech might seem simple enough, it, in fact, is much more complex than merely uttering sounds. As a rule, three stages in delivering a speech are singled out as the crucial ones. These are elocutionary, illocutionary, and perlocutionary acts. The elocutionary act is the process of saying a specific word, phrase, or sentence. For instance, in the following dialogue:
Ann: Would you like to go see The Jungle Book with me tomorrow?
Joe: I dont really like when moviemakers re-imagine stories.
Ann: I think you should judge movies on their own merit,
I dont really like when moviemakers re-imagine stories is the elocutionary act. Joe did not answer Anns question directly; instead, he stated that he preferred original movies. However, based on the context, his response was implied.
The implied response, in its turn, is the illocutionary act. In other words, the direct answer to Anns question that Joes answer contained was the illocutionary act: No, I wouldnt. However, to remain polite and not to hurt Anns feelings, Joe put his response in different words.
Seeing that a perlocutionary act is a response produced by a speech act, Anns final remark can be viewed as such. Indeed, Joe sparked a debate by suggesting that re-imagining movies are an intrinsically pointless idea. Ann disagreed with the specified statement, producing a perlocutionary act: I think you should judge movies on their own merit. Since the identified sentence veers off the initial topic of the conversation and is an emotional response to the previous speech act, it can be viewed as an example of a perlocutionary speech (Huang 90).
Direct and Indirect Speech Acts: Their Form and Function
Perlocutionary speech can manifest itself in direct and indirect acts. There are two ways of compelling someone to produce a certain response, i.e., a direct and indirect speech act. Identifying the difference between the two, one must mention that a direct speech act (DSA) implies taking the message literally, while in the indirect speech act (ISA), the message is implied.
For example, in the following question: When is Sam finally going to leave?, the request for telling the exact time when the person is going to go away can be viewed as the DSA. However, the question asked above may also imply that the person asking it is annoyed with Sam and wants him to leave as soon as possible. Therefore, in the identified scenario, the ISA is going to be: I want Sam to leave right now.
Speech acts have a form (i.e., the structure: declarative, imperative, and interrogative) and a function (i.e., the purpose: assertion, order, and question). Each of the elements belonging to the form category can be linked directly to the function-related one (i.e., declarative-assertion, imperative-order, and interrogative-question), yet they do not have to coincide. For example, the declarative form of the following statement: It sure would be nice to have a snack may perform an imperative function (Bring me some snacks, please.). The sentence in question has the elements of an illocutionary force and at the same time has an implied meaning (Huang 77).
Face Loss Risk and FTA-Avoiding Strategies
The degree of a face loss threat defines the choice of doing a face-threatening-act (FTA) and, therefore, informs the person giving the speech about the FTA-performing strategies that can be used in a particular current scenario. For example, in case the threat of hearer losing face is very high, one is likely to decide not to do the FTA. For instance, one may say: The meal was delicious, but Im so full I cant eat another bite. Thus, the damage to the face of the hearer will be minimized (i.e., the message implies that the food tastes good), while the goal (i.e., refusing to eat unpalatable food) will be achieved. In case the speaker estimates that the damage to the hearers face is not going to be high, a statement without redressive action may be used. For example, one may refuse to have a meal together by saying, Thank you, I wont join you for dinner. Either way, the message will be conveyed successfully, yet the choice of wording will be based on the speakers fear of the hearers face loss.
In some scenarios, the results of the risk assessment may indicate that the threat of face loss to the hearer is far too high for the speaker to use any forms of FTA. In the identified scenario, one will have to either keep silent or say something that does not threaten the face of the hearer in the least. For instance, when being offered to join someone for dinner, one may say: You are such a great cook! In the specified case, the hearer will not lose face, yet the speaker will not be able to reach their goal (i.e., avoid eating an unpalatable meal). Either way, the assessment of the risks of face loss that the hearer may suffer will determine the choice of the speakers FTA strategy to a considerable degree (Huang 121).
Works Cited
Huang, Yan. Pragmatics. Oxford University Press, 2007.
This article explores the premise that distinguished speech patterns can help determine the sex orientation of an individual. According to the authors of the article, popular culture disposes some individuals to use certain patterns of speech that might be expressive of their sexual orientation. The authors of this article are Benjamin Munson, a professor at the University of Minnesota and Molly Babel, a PhD candidate at the University of Californias linguistics department.
The article offers a literature review of materials that investigate whether speech patterns can convey sexual orientation. Some of the reviewed studies indicate that some individuals tend to speak in a manner that hints about their sexual orientation to their prospective listeners. Nevertheless, the article notes that the phonetic tendencies that are associated with sexual orientation are not fool proof. In addition, the article asserts that speech patterns alone cannot be determinants of sexual orientation. This article reviews studies that touch on the topics of speech patterns and sexual orientation. The article continues by discussing the implications of the authors literature analysis on various topics such as language analysis, sociolinguistics, and language acquisition.
The article begins by noting that speech patterns are rarely investigated. Most of the social discussions concerning speech occur in informal arenas such as social media platforms. Most of these discussions try to track the origins of speech variations. According to the article, the research concentrates on portrayals of sexual orientation and conversational pragmatics. The conversational pragmatics that are addressed by the study are limited to auditory and articulatory word utterances and sound characteristics. On the other hand, the studys sexual orientation discussion is limited to bisexuality, homosexuality, and heterosexuality.
Transgender and transsexual sexual orientations are not covered in this study. The article explores gay, lesbian, or bisexual (GLB) orientations. Furthermore, the authors limit their study to lose interpretations of the connection between speech patterns and sexual orientation and not complex theories on the subject.
According to the articles analysis, there are various stereotypes that are associated with regional dialects. However, portrayals of speech among members of the GLB are closely related to the stereotypes propagated by popular media. It is noted that gay characters are often portrayed using female-styled voices. In addition, the study notes that there are two common representations of gay male characters; the frivolous stereotyped characters, and the good-looking, calm, and collected characters.
The most popular characteristic of gay speech is the gay lisp and it is exemplified by a slightly high-pitched S-sound. The speech patterns associated with gay men are classified into two according to one of the reviewed studies, masculinity-rejecting and masculinity-accepting men. The authors also note that other studies have explored various angles of the sexual orientation perceptions such as their relation to authority figures, different genders, and social settings. Nevertheless, the article notes that there are few studies that investigate listeners perceptions of LGB speech patterns. The article also notes that the current research reveals that GLB speech patterns are acquired and consequently socially and culturally accepted by the society.
The articles explores various studies that directly touch on speech patterns and sexual orientation. The authors break down the review into three parts; speech production, perceptions of speech and orientation, and contribution of the reviewed materials to research. This section of the article begins by outlining the concept of speech production. It is noted that talkers can raise and lower the pitches of different sounds for their listeners benefit. Next, the authors explore studies that focus on different genders interpretation of speech production patterns. According to the authors, several studies indicate that women have higher fundamental frequencies and higher resonant frequencies than men 1. Other studies indicate that womens speech is more intelligible than mens especially in constrained listening scenarios. The article then moves on by exploring studies on differences in speech patterns between LGB populations and other populations. The authors provide an example of a study targeting eight men of different sexual orientations where it was found that the men who were gay produced higher-pitched voices.
However, the article points out that few studies examine pitch variations between lesbian and straight women. While one study found differences in pitch variations between lesbian and straight women, another one found no discernable variations. The article also investigates studies that examine the different listening perceptions between men and women when it comes to sexual orientations.
The authors of the article note that research on sexual orientation and speech patterns is in its infancy and requires a lot of follow up research. New research on the subject should focus on how speech patterns relate to sexual orientations across different languages, dialects, and cultures. The results of the study indicate that children may be learning GLB-specific speech patterns early on in life. Furthermore, the article reveals that the study on listeners perceptions on LGB-specific speech is wanting. The article concludes by noting that GLB speech variants are not imitations of the speech patterns of the same sex, but are likely to be learnt culturally 2.
Bibliography
Munson, Benjamin, and Molly Babel. Loose lips and silver tongues, or, projecting sexual orientation through speech. Language and Linguistics Compass 1, no. 5 (2007): 416-449. Web.
Footnotes
1 Benjamin Munson, and Molly Babel, Loose lips and silver tongues, or, projecting sexual orientation through speech, Language and Linguistics Compass 1, no. 5 (2007): 434.
2 Benjamin Munson, and Molly Babel, Loose lips and silver tongues, or, projecting sexual orientation through speech, Language and Linguistics Compass 1, no. 5 (2007): 447.
The world of communication is full of different ways and mechanisms of various expressions of mood people want to describe. So according to Jamie Whytes words with bizarre colouring in speech can be jargon, hooray and boo words, terminology ambiguity. Jargon is a verbal substitution of literary used phrases or words which were transformed with other graphical representations in more formal or colloquial forms. For example, speaking once about Spanish guitars then that speaker can say Do not turn me to Spain! meaning There is no need to talk about guitars. As for hooray and boo words, the thing is that the first ones outline a positive coloring of expressions used in speech, the second ones vice versa show a negative meaning of words in speech. For example, such words as goodness, justice, love, devotion are hooray words. Murder, cruelty, betrayal, lies are surely boo words. Terminology is a word with a narrow and specific meaning which can be outlined in a concept for this or that sphere of activities. Jamie Whytes gives such examples of terminology as net present value, supply, and demand, etc (Whytes, 65). Ambiguity is the emergence of two or more meanings related to one word. For example, the ambiguity is present in one play by Oscar Wild The Importance of Being Earnest where Earnest is the name of the main character and a characteristic feature of a man.
The first statement of the Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is intensified with a play of words which urge to make a paradox while pointing out that what is assessed by the Government should go through the procedure of taxation. In this prospect, the speaker encourages to put out peoples personal approach to tax. Here is a case of the boo word tax. The second statement is coloured with a sort of ironical approach while describing the Governments actions for families, maintaining the pattern standing up to have an opposite real effect. The third statement of the Prime Minister poses a case of jargon used to denote the results of MEF in terms of its comparison with a horizon. The detailed programmatic specificity is used to mention the points of general prediction or prognosis of what will follow after the Forum. The use of jargon intensifies a personal point of view in a prospective approach toward the audience so that to ornament and strictly shape the significance of the event and, probably, a sort of preconceived opinion from the side of the speaker. A case of Judith Glazers kind of work presupposes a training program for leaders with points on how to be successful in varied communities with a wide scope of different opinions in terms of standing for their own one. Also, her studies help to work out the main ideas of leaders companies and the structural part of the communicational approach implemented in practice with further engagement . The use of jargoned patterns is used academically in the language of the prescription of Judith Glazers profession with points of metaphoric transformation of graphical representation of main ideas, namely: companies genetic code, graft practices etc. A case with Peter Lloyd points out a work of a journalist who was observing the drug-related charges in Singapore and by means of some unexpected reasons was sentenced because of no accreditation as a member of ABCs representation in Singapore. RossJuliaRoss HRO is a company making recruiting process for large companies more convenient with prospects on details and proper evaluation as of this or that profession. End-to-end people and employee lifecycle are those terms that pose here use of jargon words. The last case describes in a metaphorical sense the use of the word battle with further evaluation of the instruments which can make such battle successful for a candidate and the electorate voting for him/her.
Reference List
Whyte, J. Crimes against logic: exposing the bogus arguments of politicians, priests, journalists, and other serial offenders: Empty Words. New York. McGraw Hill Professional, 2004, pp. 63-81.
Speech community could be defined to be a system wherein The speech varieties employed within a speech community form a system because they are related to a shared set of social norms (Patrick). It is now intended to consider a typical speech community interaction between a boss of a company and his assistant.
Identification and analysis of some of the speech communities
Participants: Paul Roberts Marketing Manager
Deborah Talbot: Administrative Assistant
Scene: Corridor outside Paul Roberts office
Time: 8.25 (work starts at 9.00)
PR: So how are you settling in to the new flat then, Deborah?
DT: Fine thanks, Mr. Roberts.
PR: Redecorating from top to bottom I suppose.
DT: No, not yet itll take weeks to sort out the unpacking.
PR: Still living out of boxes then?
DT: Well, there always seem something more important to do.
PR: You ought to get it done, you know. The sooner its out of the way the better.
DT: You can talk.
PR: Pardon
DT: I mean, well, I was just thinking of the move here. You know, the boxes in your office. They took ages to move, them, didnt they?
JR: Oh, I see.
DT: They do, though, dont they?
PR: I think we had things pretty well under control. Which reminds me, Ms. Talbot, could you make sure the minutes of that last board meeting are out by 11 oclock this morning? Make that a priority.
DT: Yes, Mr. Roberts ( Analysis of spoken interaction ). Apparently this speech community is a boss and his assistant carrying on an informal conversation in a neutral place, outside office hours. A large part of this conversation is light and is devoid of an officious or pompous bearing as is characteristic of official speech.
Word or phrases : settling into new flat, top to bottom, living out of boxes, minutes of that last board meeting are out by 11 oclock this morning.
Person who said these words/phrases: These words were uttered by the boss, Mr. Paul Roberts.
Larger linguistic context: It is apparent that he wished to keep his assistant in good humor which explains his condescending, yet cordial tone and speech
Larger speech context: The assistant had just changed her residence and was probably preoccupied with this. The boss shares his concern in these personal matters of the assistant.
Members of this speech community are the boss, Mr. Roberts, the marketing manager of the firm and his executive assistant, Ms. Deborah Talbot. The settings are informal, not in the cabin and outside office hours, which accounts for the non-formal tone addressed to, except towards the end of the conversation where the boss assumes an officious tone.
Discussions
Only two people are carrying out this conversation, Mr. Roberts and Ms. Talbot. My interpretation about these speech community deliberations is that up to a certain point, the conversation between the two was smooth and easy-going. However, there are reasons to believe that Ms.Talbot inwardly resented her bosss overly interest in her personal life, which accounts for her commenting- You can talk. This proves to be a turning point in this speech community and her boss promptly becomes defensive. His change of attitude is reflected in his stating Oh, I see. which means that the change in course of the conversation has now been registered. Ms.Talbot perhaps did not wish to develop a non-official conversation with her boss and perhaps resented his over anxiety in her shifting her residence. This may also have prompted her to comment that her boss could talk, meaning that it was easier said than done. This statement proves to be the turning point in this conversation, and from then only, the boss becomes circumspect and of officious bearing. While in the previous piece of conversation, he referred to Ms.Talbot by her first name, Deborah, he now becomes defensive and refers to her officially as Ms. Talbot. Thus, the conversation from this point of time deviates from informal to highly formal, with the boss asking Ms.Talbot to provide minutes of last Board meeting.
At this point in time, Ms.Talbot seems to be more at ease, and promptly agrees to do so. Perhaps, this is the kind of conversation that she expected and welcomed from her boss and which she found more comfortable to attend to. Besides, the intrusion had been forgotten and normalcy restored in the conversation between the two. There are two major aspects in this piece of community speech and they relate to unequal status and official standing between the two conversations, and, more significantly, a change in addressing his assistant from the initial, first name terms Deborah to Ms.Talbot at a later stage which marks the reinforcement of the superior status of Mr.Roberts vis-a-vis his executive assistant.
Conclusion
This piece of conversation has been chosen as an example of speech community in order to make the necessary connections as to how the pattern and tone of verbal communication could impact attitudes and rapport. The apparent simplicity of the dialogue, however, does not fail to drive home the message that two-way communication does involve a lot more than mere dialogue and its delivery. It is also necessary to understand the psyche and mental build-up of the audience and how this could be impacted by superfluous conversations.
Works Cited
Analysis of spoken interaction, n.d. Web. 2010.
Patrick, L Peter. The speech community: Some definitions. Course Manesials, 2002. Web.
The issue of the Protection of Corporate Political Speech case is focused on the question: Why do corporations receive legal protections for political speeches, while they provide limitations to the companys accountability to people? The problem is that critics exemplify such corporations as Tyco, Enron, and WorldCom stating that their business failures lacked responsibilities for the employees, who suffered considerable losses, through the enterprises protection by the law.
The analysis of the case conclusion disclosed the fact that criticism should have been concentrated on the fact, that the Supreme Court treated the corporations as separate individuals. The concept of personhood in corporations business promotion provides the same legal protection to all the operations, as to every individual. It is necessary to underline the fact that the conclusion is related to the interrelation between personhood and political speech protection granted to every person, as well as corporation. (Kubasek, Browne, and Brennan, 1996)
The issue of the case Protection of Corporate Political Speech is referred to as its argumentative clarification on the basis of the First Amendment granting individuals free speech rights. It is necessary to stress that the case can be analyzed through legal reasoning found in 1889, Minneapolis St. Louis Railroad Company v. Beckwith, 129 US 26, when the companies were recognized as persons with the same legal protections to political speeches. (Protection of Corporate Political Speech, 143) Free speech right is combined with the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, identifying that constitution framing of political speech protection should be promoted for all the parties, individuals, and corporations. The reasoning for corporations personhood is based on the right to vote, which is obtained by corporations as artificial persons. This leads to the idea that corporations impact political culture and laws through political speeches, and the limitations of their protective rights mean prohibition of their participation in any political process. The right to vote should also be prohibited in case of their deprivation of political speeches protection. (Kubasek, Browne, and Brennan, 1996)
There is a need to analyze legal reasoning in terms of its ambiguity. Persons are involved in participation in political processes through voting and political speeches. In case the corporations would not have the same rights, so they are discriminated against in their free political expressions.
On the one hand, the corporations are treated as persons and can have the legal protection of their political speeches; but on the other hand, corporations are said not to have equal political representation, though their rights for political speeches protections should be preserved, as a significant step in political realm equality. Political reasoning ambiguity is also based on the idea that the corporations political speech protection and promotion are not the same as the perception of these speeches by the population. Their rights to express opinions do not presuppose support of these opinions by the majority. So, the concept of personhood characterizing corporations participation in political processes can be treated through ambiguity; it provides protection for corporations political speeches and grants the rights to participate in political processes, though the law does not give corporations equal say and equal expression in the government at the same time. (Kubasek, Browne, and Brennan, 1996)
References
Kubasek, Nancy, Browne, Neil, and Brennan, Bartley. The legal environment of business: a critical thinking approach. Prentice Hall, 1996.
Protection of Corporate Political Speech. Thinking critically about Relevant Legal Issues. Constitutional Principles.
The research conducted by Adamson and Regan (1991) aimed at investigating the acquisition pattern of sociolinguistic norms by individuals using English as their second language (L2). The investigators have carried out their study among non-heterogeneous English speakers. In particular, the research targeted at determining the variation of (ing) in the native and nonnative speech samples (Adamson & Regan, 1991, p. 9). The research details are as follows:
The Vietnamese and Cambodian native and non-native speakers have been researched.
All of the participants lived either in Philadelphia or in Washington, DC.
The G variant (/ng/) in the language phonology has been considered as prestige and the N option (/n/) as non-prestige.
It was stated that the adoption of the second variant by the speakers should be considered a form of their junction in the speech community.
The variation of G form has been analysed using the VARBRUL computer program to provide a statistic association.
Due to the fact that the study was preliminary in character, it was assumed that the adoption of the particular phonological norm was complicated by the difficulty in separation of horizontal variation from the vertical one.
It was also suggested that the non-native speakers would adopt the prestige version in cases when their native language utilised the same version as well.
The research findings have determined that from the sociolinguistic point of view, women are more inclined to using prestige variants compared to men. Therefore, it became possible to state that the use of L2 standards is targeted by gender (Adamson & Regan, 1991). It was justified by the fact that women from the sample size belonging to the group with English as a second language would use the G variant while men would resort to N form.
Summary
Adamson and Regan (1991) researched the individuals learning English and the patterns that they employed. To be more precise, it was researched the way people adopt either the pronunciation of /ng/ or /n/ form and why a particular variant was more preferable. The individuals of Cambodian and Vietnamese origin have been studied, and the sample consisted of both native and non-native English speakers.
As it was stated by the theorists, in general, native speakers would opt for a particular pronunciation in accordance with their gender identification. That is to say, women tend to employ the /ng/ pronunciation, which is considered a more privileged form while men mostly adopt the /n/ form. It has been linked to the desire of women to display their status consciousness while, in the majority of cases, men are somewhat indifferent to this distinction (Adamson & Regan, 1991).
In the case of non-native English speakers, a tendency to produce less /n/ was revealed. Nevertheless, a gender division has also been identified. Cambodian and Vietnamese men pronounced the ending as /n/ more frequently, which has been referred to as an unconscious desire to sound similar to male English speakers for whom this language was native. Importantly, the use of /n/ form served as a measure of the individuals integration into the community.
Thus, the researchers have concluded that the acquisition of certain phonologic and linguistic patterns does correlate with the social class and gender of speakers. Those individuals learning English as their second language employ the gendered native speaker variation patterns, and this might occur unconsciously (Adamson & Regan, 1991). The findings suggest that individuals studying a foreign language place emphasis on the gendered employment of certain patterns of the native speakers, which might proceed to various reasons including psychological and normative ones.
Informed Response to Key Theoretical Concepts
The research has successfully addressed the issue of multifactoriality. In particular, the researchers have considered the principle of multiple causes to the adoption of either /ng/ or /n/ pattern and the factors determining it. The results have revealed that the variation in the speech of English L2 speakers was influenced both directly and indirectly by various social and linguistic factors. In addition, the findings validated that this variation was, in fact, systematic (Eckert, 2012). In the course of the study, it was proved that VARBRUL was an efficient tool for such variable analysis.
The area of the study that lacked precision was the role of community membership. It is worthy of noting that some researchers have carried out similar investigations about naturalistic learners; however, the results that they have gathered differ from that of the current report (Schleef, Meyerhoff, & Clark, 2011). Therefore, it can be assumed that apart from studying the variables it was significant to determine the way the sociolinguistic development was influenced by this major category (Geeslin & Long, 2014).
Some of the researchers have identified no correlation between the sociobiographic or stylistic factors and the influence of sex. However, the research by Adamson and Regan (1991) has reported this association. The group of theorists has determined that men tend to adopt male speech patterns employed by the native population rather than sticking to commonly accepted phonetic forms. Vietnamese and Cambodian non-native men would place particular attention on the use of patterns employed by native males. Thus, the VARBUL tool has revealed that gender factor is among the leading ones. Therefore, to either support or invalidate this hypothesis, further statistical studies should be conducted.
Critical Overview
It should be noted that the authors have employed a three-step procedure. Initially, they have reviewed the existing body of knowledge in terms of the naturalistic learners, and then they gathered and compiled their report regarding the research findings. After that, they presented the variation that was exhibited by the representatives of Vietnamese and Cambodian sample groups (Adamson & Regan, 1991). This approach has enabled the investigators to compare the results obtained at that time with the existing theoretical construct and draw conclusions about the factors.
Nonetheless, a certain limitation in the methodology can be concluded to the size of the sample and, therefore, the intensity of variables expressed within the sample group. Notably, 520 representatives from the native speaker group were analysed.
Respectively, only 288 individuals constituted the control group in the case of non-native speakers (Adamson & Regan, 1991). In addition, the conclusion about the gendered employment of phonetic norms has been drawn based on unequal sex distribution (the number of male participants was different from that of females). To be able to verify this hypothesis, the research team will need to rely upon a larger database.
However, most importantly, as stressed by experts, the information obtained from a cross-sectional study should not be used to provide an association with the developmental tendencies (Eckert, 2012). Therefore, it is highly advisable to expand the research findings with the data gathered from a longitudinal study. This approach will ensure that the results have been verified and can be considered relevant and reliable.
The key contribution of this article can be reflected in the fact that it allowed identifying the causal link between linguistic norms and their employment depending on the gender. The significance of the research lies in its revelation of the importance of sex in terms of sociolinguistics (Adamson & Regan, 1991). That is to say, the authors have found the evidence proving that community speech norms depend on particular social factors.
The scholarly nature of the text and its crucial findings have predetermined its inclusion in the educational curriculum. Regarding my individual experience, the reading has thrown light on the perspective that was previously unknown to me. The comprehension of such tendency as gendered native speaker variation patterns and the employment of those by non-native speakers will enable me to carry out my personal research relying on this assumption.
If the article were written today, the research would be carried out differently. As it was mentioned earlier, the study has evidenced the usability of VARBUL tool; however, the researches carried out further evidenced the need to verify and refine the result using other variation analysis tools. Apart from that, despite the fact that the article written by Adamson and Regan (1991) is evidence-based, it can serve as the fundamental body of knowledge solely since it requires further investigation.
It is rather difficult to state whether the same method can be utilized to answer my queries about sociolinguistics since the approach will depend on the variables. Nonetheless, when this study was implemented, it has revealed a new perspective on the significance of gender and sociolinguistic patterns (Geeslin & Long, 2014). More importantly, it has allowed questioning and debating the existing concepts, which is indeed significant for the advancement of scientific knowledge.
References
Adamson, H. D., & Regan, V. (1991). The acquisition of community speech norms by Asian immigrants learning English as a second language: A preliminary study. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 13(1), 1-22.
Eckert, P. (2012). Three waves of variation study: The emergence of meaning in the study of sociolinguistic variation. Annual Review of Anthropology, 11(41), 87-100.
Geeslin, K., & Long, A. (2014). Sociolinguistics and second language acquisition. London, UK: Routledge.
Schleef, E., Meyerhoff, M., & Clark, L. (2011). Teenagers acquisition of variation: A comparison of locally-born and migrant teens realisation of English (ing) in Edinburgh and London. English World-Wide, 32(2), 206-236.
Speech production describes the process of translating thoughts into speech. This process includes the selection of relevant grammatical forms and subsequent articulation of the emerging sounds by the motor system with the aid of vocal parts. In a bid to understand spoken language, it is fundamental to establish what restricts the form of speech and the application of speech. Consequently, that will entail a study of how humans vocal mechanisms produces sounds or of how sounds generate auditory sensations.
However, this process must incorporate the study of perception, memory, and cognition. This paper seeks to examine the process of speech production and perception among children with speech production errors related to cleft palate speech challenges. Cleft palate speech refers to conditions such as altered laryngeal voice quality, disordered nasal airflow, and atypical consonant productions. Children with cleft palate are at risk for speech difficulties most likely those caused by velopharyngeal inadequacy.
The major problem associated with cleft palate is that during speech production, the tongue touches the palate thus interfering with the normal flow of air through the oral cavity. The aim of this paper is to conduct a review of five articles in a bid to establish speech production for children with cleft palate as well as how the findings of the evaluation can help in generating intervention decisions. Instrumental procedures that issue useful information about the function of the velopharyngeal valve will be examined.
Background to the study
In spite of the changes and benefits offered by the medical sector, research indicates that a large number of children with cleft palate indicate speech production problems particularly in articulation and resonance during early childhood. Management of patients with a cleft palate has improved significantly over the past decade. Even though most of the procedures used today are improved surgical techniques that were applied in the past, the outcome is viewed to have improved immensely.
Early intervention through palatal surgery is necessary for better speech production. In an effort to enhance speech production in children with cleft palate, optimal treatment is necessary, especially the intervention measures involving primary palate repair at early stages of development. However, this section seeks to show that early intervention for children with cleft palate is necessary for speech production among the affected population.
Methodology
This study relied on secondary information obtained from various texts and articles selected from large pool materials. The databases used for search the articles include EBSCOhost, JSTOR, PubMed, and NCBI among others. The initial search targeted twenty articles, but only three were chosen based on the richness of evidence regarding the topic. The search focused on identifying articles that offered insights about speech production among children with cleft palate.
The search for relevant sources targeted to establish the different types of cleft palate among preschoolers. The inclusion criteria targeted sources that covered physical (acoustic, aerodynamic, physiological) measures of speech. This search included peer-reviewed articles mainly discussing IT advances in the oil and gas industry. Sources that manifested only phonetic transcription were not selected for this study.
Summary of articles
The first article by Gibbon, Lee, and Yuen (2010) holds that individuals with cleft palate are likely to make many errors when articulating high vowels. This problem occurs after the tongue and the palate come into contact, thus obstructing the normal passage of air through the oral cavity. The authors posit that the complete contact suggests that the tongue is raised to the extent that it presses up against the palate, obstructing airflow through the mouth and increasing the likelihood of nasalized vowels (Gibbon et al., 2010, p. 410).
Some of the proposed intervention measures include oral examination, therapy, and velopharyngeal port imaging. Oral examination entails observation of the hard palate and the soft palate to identify any signs of velar elevation that might provide evidence of velopharyngeal closure. However, completion of speech evaluation is necessary before oral examination is conducted. A repaired cleft lip and palate may cause an anterior cross bite that decreases articulatory space and leads to the creation of distortions. Therapy entails decisions to conduct surgery in a bid to eliminate the maladaptive compensatory errors such as pharyngeal substitutions.
If a child manifests these errors, as s/he undergoes surgical management to rectify velopharyngeal function, it is essential for the speech-language pathologist to coach the child to plug the nose during surgery and then focus on the particular lip and tongue placement for desired phonemes. Velopharyngeal port imaging during speech is essential in determining if a surgical process is inevitable and the most suitable procedure to enhance speech production. Hearing loss is also identified as a possible problem to children with cleft palate. These children have high chances of getting fluid in the middle ear as well as infections.
These infections may lead to partial hearing impairment. Since children learn to speak and comprehend speech via hearing, it is critical that ear health and hearing effects are keenly monitored. The author claims that children born with cleft palate may experience a delay in the start of speech sounds. The author suggests various intervention measures to deal with the issue of cleft palate. These measures include speech therapy, surgery and regular ear and hearing tests. This intervention measures seek to assist a child in learning the proper way of using the lips and tongue appropriately during speech. Alternatively, for those children with mild speech errors, providing language-learning opportunities can help develop good speech.
In the second article, Gibbon (2004) posits, Individuals with cleft palate, even those with adequate velopharyngeal function, are at high risk for disordered lingual articulation (p. 285). The widely used corrective therapy for this condition is electropalatography (EPG) to help the affected individuals overcome the problems associated with articulation. Gibbon (2004) notes that this problem can resolve itself spontaneously in small children, but as time progresses, the problem becomes almost impossible to disappear without the intervention of therapy.
Therefore, the EPG treatment becomes useful in such situations as it has a feedback mechanism that allows one to monitor the tongue-palate contact patterns during speech. These patterns are then studied and employed during therapy to prevent contact. Gibbon (2004) notes that EPG is not just a therapy tool; however, the data can provide objective, quantifiable, and clinically relevant information about lingual articulation that adds to our knowledge about speech difficulties experienced by individuals with cleft palate (p. 286). So far, the use of EPG has allowed researchers to identify eight different patterns of contact between the tongue and the palate in individuals with cleft palate.
The article acknowledges that more research is needed to address missing aspects associated with articulation difficulties in children with cleft palate. For instance, little information is available on the nature of problems experienced when pronouncing consonant clusters.
The third article by Gibbon, Smeaton-Ewins, and Crampin (2005) claims that even with early-cleft repair, some children manifest poor speech defined by abnormal nasal resonance and abnormal nasal airflow. This article examines the signs to determine those that can be rectified via speech therapy, the ones that occur in the course of the childs growth, and the advanced cases where medical intervention is needed. In cases where VPD is identified, measures like nasoendoscopy should be taken to offer information regarding the capability of the velopharyngeal valve for speech generation and further management of this error.
This article shares further information on effects of cleft on voice by suggesting that patients with cleft palate may also manifest dysphonia. Some of the signs of this condition include gruffness and breathing with difficulties coupled with speaking in low tones. This complexity is caused by increased breathing effort. Besides, dysphonia may also mask nasality, and inhibit perceptual evaluation. Even with early intervention, a majority of children exhibit delays in speech development thus it is necessary to ensure continued therapy to correct speech disorder by the age of 5 years.
The process of speech production
Speech production emanates from the brain where the message and the lexico-grammatical structure build. Then a pattern of organized movements that starts with airflow from the breathing system occurs. The airflow is regulated at the laryngeal, articulatory, and resonatory arrangement (Gibbon, 2004, p. 290). The physical production of sounds entails four procedures that include initiation, phonation, nasal mechanisms and articulation.
The initiation mechanism entails the expulsion of the air from the lungs. The phonation process takes over at the larynx that contains the two focal folds. These folds have a gap between them referred to as glottis. In some instances, the glottis can be closed allowing no air to penetrate, it can have a narrow opening that causes the vocal folds to vibrate and make the voiced sounds. The glottis can also be wide open like in the case with normal breathing system. The articulation stage happens in the mouth enabling individuals to distinguish most speech sounds. However, since the palate affects the articulation, the speech sounds are produced depending on the influence of the cleft palate.
Different sounds are generated across the vocal tract. The sounds that come out are dependent on the location and behavior of the intonations. The vowels are generated without any major restriction made by the lip or tongue (Gibbon et al., 2010). The classification of vowels is based on the location and the length of the tongue coupled with how the lips adjust in the process. On the other hand, the consonants are grouped as glottal, velar, retroflex, palatal, dental, and bilabial depending on the location where tongue makes the constriction. Most likely, the pressure consonants are highly affected than the other sounds.
Critique
This paper has reviewed three different articles that manifest consistency in their findings. These articles cover critical areas of speech production among patients with cleft palate such as speech perception and acoustics concerning practical applications as well as theories. However, this review suggests that the claims warrant extended scientific scrutiny. Various theories reckon the presence of a linkage between speech perception and production.
For the motor theorists, the linkage mirrors biological coevolution of the generation and perception systems. However, this manifests a bias for language communities to choose articulations that possess auditory diverse acoustic consequences. However, since most readers are not used to phonetic symbols for speech phonemes, the articles make use of understandable language to communicate.
Recommendations
Speech intervention for patients with cleft palate should commence even before the palate is corrected. In young children, the focus should be on educating the people around the child, especially parents or the people who spend a lot of time with the child, on how to induce the childs capability to learn and apply the different aspects of language. Several studies agree on the usefulness of parents in assisting children at an early stage on how to learn and use language, which averts different errors in communication.
However, it should be noted that errors resulting from structural defects cannot be restored via speech therapy. In case a structural correction has been carried out, the individual should go through several sessions of speech therapy to ensure the proper production of sounds during speech. Since patients with cleft palate have enough muscle, strength oromotor exercises should be excluded.
Conclusion
The production of speech is a complex motor task that is widely recognized as a medium of communication thus inevitable to human beings. Therefore, young children with cleft palate should be exposed to language simulation exercises to improve their speech production. This process should entail frequent sentence repetition tasks to encourage them to develop speech. Although the speech sounds of children with cleft palate will be nasally produced before correction, these sounds should be encouraged over glottal stops. Essentially, speech production among children with cleft palate is possible if appropriate intervention measures are observed.
References
Gibbon, E. (2004). Abnormal patterns of tongue-palate contact in the speech of individuals with cleft palate. Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics, 18(4), 285-311.
Gibbon, E., Lee, A., & Yuen, I. (2010). Tongue-palate contact during selected vowels in normal speech. Cleft Palate Craniofacial Journal, 47(4), 405-411.
Gibbon, E., Smeaton-Ewins, P., & Crampin, L. (2005). Tongue-palate contact during selected vowel in children with cleft palate. Folia Phoniatr Logop, 57(4), 181-192.
Locutionary, Illocutionary, and Perlocutionary Acts: Threefold Distinction
Although the process of producing speech might seem simple enough, it, in fact, is much more complex than merely uttering sounds. As a rule, three stages in delivering a speech are singled out as the crucial ones. These are elocutionary, illocutionary, and perlocutionary acts. The elocutionary act is the process of saying a specific word, phrase, or sentence. For instance, in the following dialogue:
Ann: Would you like to go see The Jungle Book with me tomorrow?
Joe: I dont really like when moviemakers re-imagine stories.
Ann: I think you should judge movies on their own merit,
I dont really like when moviemakers re-imagine stories is the elocutionary act. Joe did not answer Anns question directly; instead, he stated that he preferred original movies. However, based on the context, his response was implied.
The implied response, in its turn, is the illocutionary act. In other words, the direct answer to Anns question that Joes answer contained was the illocutionary act: No, I wouldnt. However, to remain polite and not to hurt Anns feelings, Joe put his response in different words.
Seeing that a perlocutionary act is a response produced by a speech act, Anns final remark can be viewed as such. Indeed, Joe sparked a debate by suggesting that re-imagining movies are an intrinsically pointless idea. Ann disagreed with the specified statement, producing a perlocutionary act: I think you should judge movies on their own merit. Since the identified sentence veers off the initial topic of the conversation and is an emotional response to the previous speech act, it can be viewed as an example of a perlocutionary speech (Huang 90).
Direct and Indirect Speech Acts: Their Form and Function
Perlocutionary speech can manifest itself in direct and indirect acts. There are two ways of compelling someone to produce a certain response, i.e., a direct and indirect speech act. Identifying the difference between the two, one must mention that a direct speech act (DSA) implies taking the message literally, while in the indirect speech act (ISA), the message is implied.
For example, in the following question: When is Sam finally going to leave?, the request for telling the exact time when the person is going to go away can be viewed as the DSA. However, the question asked above may also imply that the person asking it is annoyed with Sam and wants him to leave as soon as possible. Therefore, in the identified scenario, the ISA is going to be: I want Sam to leave right now.
Speech acts have a form (i.e., the structure: declarative, imperative, and interrogative) and a function (i.e., the purpose: assertion, order, and question). Each of the elements belonging to the form category can be linked directly to the function-related one (i.e., declarative-assertion, imperative-order, and interrogative-question), yet they do not have to coincide. For example, the declarative form of the following statement: It sure would be nice to have a snack may perform an imperative function (Bring me some snacks, please.). The sentence in question has the elements of an illocutionary force and at the same time has an implied meaning (Huang 77).
Face Loss Risk and FTA-Avoiding Strategies
The degree of a face loss threat defines the choice of doing a face-threatening-act (FTA) and, therefore, informs the person giving the speech about the FTA-performing strategies that can be used in a particular current scenario. For example, in case the threat of hearer losing face is very high, one is likely to decide not to do the FTA. For instance, one may say: The meal was delicious, but Im so full I cant eat another bite. Thus, the damage to the face of the hearer will be minimized (i.e., the message implies that the food tastes good), while the goal (i.e., refusing to eat unpalatable food) will be achieved. In case the speaker estimates that the damage to the hearers face is not going to be high, a statement without redressive action may be used. For example, one may refuse to have a meal together by saying, Thank you, I wont join you for dinner. Either way, the message will be conveyed successfully, yet the choice of wording will be based on the speakers fear of the hearers face loss.
In some scenarios, the results of the risk assessment may indicate that the threat of face loss to the hearer is far too high for the speaker to use any forms of FTA. In the identified scenario, one will have to either keep silent or say something that does not threaten the face of the hearer in the least. For instance, when being offered to join someone for dinner, one may say: You are such a great cook! In the specified case, the hearer will not lose face, yet the speaker will not be able to reach their goal (i.e., avoid eating an unpalatable meal). Either way, the assessment of the risks of face loss that the hearer may suffer will determine the choice of the speakers FTA strategy to a considerable degree (Huang 121).
Works Cited
Huang, Yan. Pragmatics. Oxford University Press, 2007.
The world of communication is full of different ways and mechanisms of various expressions of mood people want to describe. So according to Jamie Whytes words with bizarre colouring in speech can be jargon, hooray and boo words, terminology ambiguity. Jargon is a verbal substitution of literary used phrases or words which were transformed with other graphical representations in more formal or colloquial forms. For example, speaking once about Spanish guitars then that speaker can say Do not turn me to Spain! meaning There is no need to talk about guitars. As for hooray and boo words, the thing is that the first ones outline a positive coloring of expressions used in speech, the second ones vice versa show a negative meaning of words in speech. For example, such words as goodness, justice, love, devotion are hooray words. Murder, cruelty, betrayal, lies are surely boo words. Terminology is a word with a narrow and specific meaning which can be outlined in a concept for this or that sphere of activities. Jamie Whytes gives such examples of terminology as net present value, supply, and demand, etc (Whytes, 65). Ambiguity is the emergence of two or more meanings related to one word. For example, the ambiguity is present in one play by Oscar Wild The Importance of Being Earnest where Earnest is the name of the main character and a characteristic feature of a man.
The first statement of the Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is intensified with a play of words which urge to make a paradox while pointing out that what is assessed by the Government should go through the procedure of taxation. In this prospect, the speaker encourages to put out peoples personal approach to tax. Here is a case of the boo word tax. The second statement is coloured with a sort of ironical approach while describing the Governments actions for families, maintaining the pattern standing up to have an opposite real effect. The third statement of the Prime Minister poses a case of jargon used to denote the results of MEF in terms of its comparison with a horizon. The detailed programmatic specificity is used to mention the points of general prediction or prognosis of what will follow after the Forum. The use of jargon intensifies a personal point of view in a prospective approach toward the audience so that to ornament and strictly shape the significance of the event and, probably, a sort of preconceived opinion from the side of the speaker. A case of Judith Glazers kind of work presupposes a training program for leaders with points on how to be successful in varied communities with a wide scope of different opinions in terms of standing for their own one. Also, her studies help to work out the main ideas of leaders companies and the structural part of the communicational approach implemented in practice with further engagement . The use of jargoned patterns is used academically in the language of the prescription of Judith Glazers profession with points of metaphoric transformation of graphical representation of main ideas, namely: companies genetic code, graft practices etc. A case with Peter Lloyd points out a work of a journalist who was observing the drug-related charges in Singapore and by means of some unexpected reasons was sentenced because of no accreditation as a member of ABCs representation in Singapore. RossJuliaRoss HRO is a company making recruiting process for large companies more convenient with prospects on details and proper evaluation as of this or that profession. End-to-end people and employee lifecycle are those terms that pose here use of jargon words. The last case describes in a metaphorical sense the use of the word battle with further evaluation of the instruments which can make such battle successful for a candidate and the electorate voting for him/her.
Reference List
Whyte, J. Crimes against logic: exposing the bogus arguments of politicians, priests, journalists, and other serial offenders: Empty Words. New York. McGraw Hill Professional, 2004, pp. 63-81.
Speech community could be defined to be a system wherein The speech varieties employed within a speech community form a system because they are related to a shared set of social norms (Patrick). It is now intended to consider a typical speech community interaction between a boss of a company and his assistant.
Identification and analysis of some of the speech communities
Participants: Paul Roberts Marketing Manager
Deborah Talbot: Administrative Assistant
Scene: Corridor outside Paul Roberts office
Time: 8.25 (work starts at 9.00)
PR: So how are you settling in to the new flat then, Deborah?
DT: Fine thanks, Mr. Roberts.
PR: Redecorating from top to bottom I suppose.
DT: No, not yet itll take weeks to sort out the unpacking.
PR: Still living out of boxes then?
DT: Well, there always seem something more important to do.
PR: You ought to get it done, you know. The sooner its out of the way the better.
DT: You can talk.
PR: Pardon
DT: I mean, well, I was just thinking of the move here. You know, the boxes in your office. They took ages to move, them, didnt they?
JR: Oh, I see.
DT: They do, though, dont they?
PR: I think we had things pretty well under control. Which reminds me, Ms. Talbot, could you make sure the minutes of that last board meeting are out by 11 oclock this morning? Make that a priority.
DT: Yes, Mr. Roberts ( Analysis of spoken interaction ). Apparently this speech community is a boss and his assistant carrying on an informal conversation in a neutral place, outside office hours. A large part of this conversation is light and is devoid of an officious or pompous bearing as is characteristic of official speech.
Word or phrases : settling into new flat, top to bottom, living out of boxes, minutes of that last board meeting are out by 11 oclock this morning.
Person who said these words/phrases: These words were uttered by the boss, Mr. Paul Roberts.
Larger linguistic context: It is apparent that he wished to keep his assistant in good humor which explains his condescending, yet cordial tone and speech
Larger speech context: The assistant had just changed her residence and was probably preoccupied with this. The boss shares his concern in these personal matters of the assistant.
Members of this speech community are the boss, Mr. Roberts, the marketing manager of the firm and his executive assistant, Ms. Deborah Talbot. The settings are informal, not in the cabin and outside office hours, which accounts for the non-formal tone addressed to, except towards the end of the conversation where the boss assumes an officious tone.
Discussions
Only two people are carrying out this conversation, Mr. Roberts and Ms. Talbot. My interpretation about these speech community deliberations is that up to a certain point, the conversation between the two was smooth and easy-going. However, there are reasons to believe that Ms.Talbot inwardly resented her bosss overly interest in her personal life, which accounts for her commenting- You can talk. This proves to be a turning point in this speech community and her boss promptly becomes defensive. His change of attitude is reflected in his stating Oh, I see. which means that the change in course of the conversation has now been registered. Ms.Talbot perhaps did not wish to develop a non-official conversation with her boss and perhaps resented his over anxiety in her shifting her residence. This may also have prompted her to comment that her boss could talk, meaning that it was easier said than done. This statement proves to be the turning point in this conversation, and from then only, the boss becomes circumspect and of officious bearing. While in the previous piece of conversation, he referred to Ms.Talbot by her first name, Deborah, he now becomes defensive and refers to her officially as Ms. Talbot. Thus, the conversation from this point of time deviates from informal to highly formal, with the boss asking Ms.Talbot to provide minutes of last Board meeting.
At this point in time, Ms.Talbot seems to be more at ease, and promptly agrees to do so. Perhaps, this is the kind of conversation that she expected and welcomed from her boss and which she found more comfortable to attend to. Besides, the intrusion had been forgotten and normalcy restored in the conversation between the two. There are two major aspects in this piece of community speech and they relate to unequal status and official standing between the two conversations, and, more significantly, a change in addressing his assistant from the initial, first name terms Deborah to Ms.Talbot at a later stage which marks the reinforcement of the superior status of Mr.Roberts vis-a-vis his executive assistant.
Conclusion
This piece of conversation has been chosen as an example of speech community in order to make the necessary connections as to how the pattern and tone of verbal communication could impact attitudes and rapport. The apparent simplicity of the dialogue, however, does not fail to drive home the message that two-way communication does involve a lot more than mere dialogue and its delivery. It is also necessary to understand the psyche and mental build-up of the audience and how this could be impacted by superfluous conversations.
Works Cited
Analysis of spoken interaction, n.d. Web. 2010.
Patrick, L Peter. The speech community: Some definitions. Course Manesials, 2002. Web.