What is different about the human language?
Traditional claim is:
- human language is creative - animal communication is not, or only to a tiny extent
- humans can think at an abstract level
Language is the ……… ….. of human communication
- -> communicating with ………
- -> communicating with ……….
primary mode
others
ourselves
What is phonetics?
What is phonology?
Phonetics = how speech sounds are produced, acoustic result of speech articulation Phonology = how sounds are used to make words, the functions of the sounds within a particular language
What is the difference between written and spoken language?
Written language
- discrete words separated by spaces
- usually complete, correct spelling
- opportunity to skip, skim or reread
- more explicit, can only have one shot, needs more prior thought
Spoken language
- continous sequence of sounds, usually without ‘spaces’
- often damaged, interrupted, parts mumbled
- can change your mind as you speak
- build rapport and establish relationship with people
Describe the following sounds and how the following sounds are produced:
- vowels
- consonants
- syllables
Vowels = vibrating vocal cords in larynx with clear vocal tract, produced using slower extrinsic muscles Consonants = some occlusion of the vocal tract, sound source can be from larynx, click or hiss Syllables = all languages have CV syllables, basic unit of articulation, consonant clusters
What are the three main sounds. Give examples of each
Plosives/stops - bilabials (p, b, m) - alveolars (t, d, n) - velars (k, g, ng) Fricatives - (voiced and voiceless th) - (f) (v) - (s) (sh) Affricates - (ch) (j) - (sh) (seiZUre)
Describe the course of language development
- discriminations of language components in infancy
- production of first words
- production of first sentences
- increasing ability to use more sophisticated forms of language (e.g. humour, sarcasm, metaphors)
- continues to develop into adulthood
- critical period for language acquisition –> predicts language recovery after injury
What are the characteristics of typical speech development?
- follows a typical and predictable pattern and timetable
- by the age of 8, children can produce nearly all the consonants and vowels that make up the native language
- there is variation among children in the time of acquisition
Name four speech disorders
- articulation
- apraxia of speech
- voice disorders
- fluency disorders
What is the speech chain?
linguistic –> physiological –> acoustic –> physiology –> linguistic
speaker –> sensory nerves/ear, motor nerves/vocal muscles, feedback link, sounds waves –> listener –> sensory nerves, ear
What is the wider context of speech sounds
- language, accent
- speaker differences
- effect of external factors
Dialect, Sociolect, Idiolect
What are the five components of language?
- phonology = the use of sounds to make meaningful syllables and words
- morphology = the structure of words
- syntax = the rules for putting together a series of words to form sentences
- semantics = word and sentence meanings for what is spoken
- pragmatics = social use of language
What are the 3 components of prosody?
- Pitch –> corresponds to the frequency of vibration of the vocal cords, (has phonetic significance in tonal languages)
- Intensity –> how loud a particular word or syllable is
- Timing –> stress timed vs syllable timed languages
What is meant by non-acoustic signals?
Give examples
- many other sources of information form other senses: face, body, gesture, touch, can make you “hear” things differently
- Lip reading = information about articulation can be derived from observing lips, major cue to the hearing impaired, significant effect for normal hearers
- Paralinguistic information = facial mood and emotion, culturally-grounded gestures, modifying gestures, body language, stress and emphasis
What is meant by complexity demanding intelligence?
- Speech is very complex –> requires fusion of many sources of knowledge
- Humans have developed large brains and supreme intelligence in the animal kingdom to deal with it –> very large number of neurones, in parallel
What is meant by language lateralisation?
The left hemisphere is dominant for language in >90% of right-handed individuals and 70% of left-handed individuals
- Left handed individuals tend to recover language functions faster after injury than right-handed individuals
Neurophysiology of Auditory Language:
What are the 4 associated brain areas/
- Primary auditory area –> perception of spoken language
- Wernicke’s area –> comprehension of spoken language
- Arcuate fasiculus –> association fibre bundle connecting Wernicke’s and Broca’s area
- Broca’s area –> production of speech, initiation of speech and via connections to supplementary motor areas
What areas are involved in the neurophysiology of written language?
- visual cortex –> perception of words or images
- angular gyrus –> comprehension of written language, auditory version of word is stimulated in Wernicke’s area by angular guys which then sends info to Broca’s area
What is sign language analogous to?
logographic characters
- based on signs for ideas rather than individual words
- backed up with alphabet signs
What is aphasia?
What are the causes?
- a disturbance of language formation and comprehension caused by localised brain dysfunction
- most common causes are TBI, or stroke. Others include tumours, degenerative dementias, de-myelinating disorders and infections
How can language function be tested?
- fluency
- paraphrases
- comprehension
- repetition
- naming
- reading
- writing
- prosody
What are the different names for expressive and receptive aphasia?
Expressive = non fluent / Broca's aphasia Receptive = fluent / Wernicke's aphasia
What are the clinical features of the following in expressive aphasia?
- speech
- comprehension
- repetition
- naming
- reading
- writing
- typical localisation of lesion
- typical pathology
Expressive
- a spontaneous, non fluent, dysarthria, dysprodic, telegraphic, effortful, phonemic paraphasia
- comprehension relatively normal, deficit in complex grammatical structures
- repetition impaired
- naming impaired but improves with cues
- reading aloud impaired
- writing impaired, poorly formed letters
- typical localisation of lesion = left posterior inferior frontal cortex and underlying white matter
- typical pathology = stroke of upper division of left middle cerebral artery
What are the clinical features of the following in receptive aphasia?
- speech
- comprehension
- repetition
- naming
- reading
- writing
- typical localisation of lesion
- typical pathology
- Speech is fluent, normal prosody and articulation, frequent semantic and phonemic paraphasias
- comprehension impaired
- repetition impaired
- naming impaired, paraphasic errors
- reading aloud impaired
- writing, well formed letters but meaningless content
- typical localisation of lesion = superior posterior temporal region, including supramarginal and angular gyri commonly; subcortical lesion of temporal isthmus (interrupts input to Wernicke’s area)
- typical pathology = stroke of lower divisions of left middle cerebral artery
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