2. How do people understand
and produce language?
Human Communication- Humans love to talk.
Understanding a message requires the
listener to decode the acoustic signal into
language to understand the original idea.
Human’s concentrate on what they are
saying not how they are able to say it.
3. Common sense view of
communication- 3.1
Encode and decode
Predict- sample the acoustic signal to verify their
prediction
Listening- which is not precise, depends on listeners
inferences,
Social context- helps determines meaning
Gestures to help with communication
Tone of voice varies meaning
Speaker and listener must share a knowledge of
reference to communicate
Literal or non-literal (frog in my throat)
Direct or non-direct (is there any salt on the table)
4. Why use sound to communicate?
Humans use sounds to express ideas their hands
are free for other tasks. “they can talk not just
whistle while they work)
Communication in dark or distances with voice
To speak the human must change the way they
breathe during non verbal communication.
Naturally adjust breathing during to
accommodate speech.
Our physical body develops over time to be able
to produce more variations of sounds. Babies can
breathe and eat at the same time but adults
can’t.
5. The Complexity of sound
production
Acquired capacity
8 phonemes (distinctive meaningful sounds) per second
During phoneme production the brain sends signals to the
brain, lungs, vocal cords, tongue, and lips to contract
and/or relax.
The messages sent by the brain to produce coordinated
movement between the language parts is so complicated
and detailed that it must be an acquired skill.
“These features of speech are so complex and automatic
physical gestures which cannot be learned, but are among
the biologically innate features that facilitate the
acquisition of speech by the human species.” Pg. 52
6. English phonology
The study of the sounds used by speakers of
a particular language.
A phoneme is a sound that makes a
difference in meaning in a language.
English has 40 phonemes while Spanish has
about twenty-two.
In phonemic transcription each sound is
represented by one and only one written
mark.
Each phoneme has a particular place of
articulation properties.
