Speech: the mechanisms of speech. Anatomical-physiological mechanisms of speech

One of the key points that distinguish human development from an animal (both physiological and socio-psychological) is speech. It is a process of communication between people through language. In everyday practice, the concepts of "speech" and "language" are often used as synonyms. However, if you approach the issue from a scientific point of view, then these concepts should be distinguished.

Language structure

Language is a system of signs that serves as a means of realizing human communication and thinking (Psychological Dictionary / Edited by VV Davydov, AV Zaporozhets, BF Lomov). It is developed in the process of social development, representing a form of reflection of social being in the minds of individuals. It is important to note that a person receives a ready-made language, which was formed long before the birth of this particular individual. However, becoming a bearer of a given language, an individual simultaneously becomes a potential source of its development.

The structure of the language includes the following components:

- vocabulary (meaning words system),

- grammar (a system of forms of words and phrases),

- phonetics (a certain sound composition, peculiar only to a specific language).

Semantic specificity of language

The main specificity of the language lies in the fact that it, as a system of signs, ensures that a certain value is assigned to each word. Thus, the meaning of a word is a generalized characteristic. For example, the word "city" can unite a lot of specific cities - from small and little-known to these megacities, familiar to everyone. On the other hand, if we mean a specific locality (for example, Nizhny Novgorod or Prague), then we will also use the concept of "city", but to mean in this case exactly the object in question.

The mechanisms of speech

Speech is a historically established form of people's communication through language (The Big Psychological Dictionary / Edited BG Meshcheryakova, VP Zinchenko). It can have a narrative, interrogative or motivational structure. In this case, the psychological mechanisms of speech as a system of communication through the language are no less complex than the mechanisms of the language itself. In the process of conveying any information with the help of speech, it is necessary not only to select the appropriate words having a certain value, but also their specification. Since each word, as already mentioned above, is a generalization, then in a speech it is necessary to narrow it down to a level of a certain meaning. How does this happen? The main role of the so-called "filter" in this case is played by the context through which the word is introduced into speech. The mechanisms of speech from the psychological side, respectively, can be determined by such concepts as context, subtext and emotional-expressive component.

Semantic Context

So, in our example with the word "city" it is important to understand what exactly we want to know about it: "What kind of city is this?" If the question sounds like: "Where is this city?", Hence, it is a spatial characteristic (location on Map, how to get there, how many kilometers, what is nearby, etc.). If we are interested in the question: "What is interesting about this city?", It means that we can talk about some sights (for example, historical, cultural or economic). Accordingly, the question itself as a language construct ("what kind of city") has an insufficient semantic load and requires an additional context. The construction of this context, in turn, is carried out in the process of speech.

Subtext of speech

Of particular importance is the meaning of the message that the subject wants to convey through speech. The mechanisms of speech, carried out within the context of the semantic implication, are a reflection of the motivational side of our statement. As you know, not always the true meaning of a phrase is on the surface - often we say one thing, but mean something else (manipulation, flattery, the desire to translate the topic of conversation, etc.).

Emotional-expressive aspect of speech

Also, the significant difference between speech and language is emotional coloring. Through verbal meanings, we not only convey certain content, information about the object - we express with our speech our own emotional attitude to what we say. This characteristic is the emotional and expressive side of speech and is formed due to the tone of the sounding of the words used by us to pronounce the spoken phrase.

Intonational mechanisms of speech

The development of speech as an integral process encompasses all aspects of the verbal sphere of the individual, including the intonation side.

The intonation side - melody (prosody) of speech - is directly related to its purity, correctness and beauty. Intonation plays a huge role, strengthening the meaning of words and expressing sometimes more meaning than the words themselves. In addition, intonationally expressive sounding oral speech is easier to perceive, since it allows us to identify the most important parts of the statement in the semantic meaning.

The intonational mechanism of speech formation refers to paralinguistic means of communication. These are non-linguistic (non-verbal) means included in the speech message and transmit along with the linguistic (verbal) means the semantic information. They can be divided into three types (Shevtsova BB, "Technology of formation intonational side of speech"):

- Background (features of pronouncing sounds, words, utterances, sound pause fillers);

- kinetic (gestures, facial expressions, body movements);

- graphic (features of handwriting, substitutes for letters and words). Phonation aids include intonation.

Intonation, in turn, is a collection of sound means of the language phonetically organizing speech, establishing the semantic relations between parts of the phrase, telling the phrase a narrative, interrogative or exclamatory meaning, allowing the speaker to express different feelings. The mechanisms of written speech allow expressing one or another intonation with punctuation marks.

The formation of the intonational side of speech affects such components as melody, timbre, tempo, rhythm, stress and pause.

1. Melodica

It is the main component of intonation. The melody of speech determines the change in the frequency of the fundamental tone, unfolding in time (Torsueva IG). Melody functions:

- the allocation of rhythmic groups and syntagmas in the structure of the utterance,

- highlighting the most significant moments of the statement,

- the binding of individual parts of the utterance into a single whole,

- determination of the subject's relation to the spoken text,

- expression of subtext, modal shades.

The melody of the utterance is formed due to the combination of several melodic motifs - the minimal units of melodies associated with the rhythmic series. Melodic utterances form either several different motives or repetitions of the same motif.

Speech melody and melodic music are not the same thing. Speech melody rarely keeps a smooth tone, constantly rising, then falling. As often its intervals vary, and tones do not have a certain duration. Unlike the musical, the melodic speech does not fit into the scheme of a certain musical scale.

One of the components of melody, which determines the anatomical and physiological mechanisms of speech, is the frequency of the fundamental tone (TOT) - the lowest component in the spectrum of sound, the reciprocal of the period of vibration of the vocal cords. In normal speech, a constant change in the fundamental frequency occurs during a conversation. As for the range of these changes, it is determined by the individual features of the speaker's speech, as well as by his emotional-psychic state.

Physiological mechanisms of speech in relation to PRT:

- male: 132 Hz,

- female: 223 Hz,

- Children: 264 Hz.

As for distinguishing sounds by height, it is determined by the speed of vibration of the person's vocal folds. In turn, the mechanism of speech generation due to folding vibrations depends on such parameters as the speed of the airflow passing through the voice gap; Width of the glottis; The level of elasticity of the vocal folds; Mass of the vibrating part of the folds.

With a constant change in the pitch frequency in the sounding speech, the melodic performs a binding function for the individual parts of the speech stream and at the same time a separating one.

2. Timbre

With the melody is directly connected such a characteristic as the timbre of speech. However, there is no unambiguous approach to the concept of timbre in studies aimed at mechanisms of speech perception. On the one hand, the timbre means a special qualitative coloration of the sound, which is created by a specific relationship between the strength of the fundamental tone and its overtones (depending on the shape of the resonator). From the point of view of this position, the timbre is associated with the purity and brightness of the sound of the voice. Thus, if the voice tone for many people can be common, then the timbre is an individual characteristic.

On the other hand, the timbre can be considered as an additional coloring of the sound, which gives the voice various emotional shades. This approach is typical primarily for linguistics (phonology). According to researchers, timbre characteristics do not have a basic communicative load, manifested only in the expression of various kinds of emotions by changing the color of the voice.

3. Rhythm

It is a successive alternation of shock and unstressed elements of speech (words, syllables) at specific intervals of time. Defines the aesthetic organization of an artistic text, arranging its sound expression.

4. The pace

The pace characterizes a person's speech in terms of the speed of pronouncing speech elements (syllables, words, syntagmas). The amount of data of elements pronounced in a certain unit of time (for example, a second) is estimated. For example, the average rate of speech during a conversation is about 5-6 syllables per second.

Among the main tempo functions, it is customary to distinguish the following: maintaining the intonational integrity of the speech utterance and separating the significant / insignificant moments in the utterance. So, for example, on more important points of a statement a person, as a rule, slows down the tempo. Conversely, if we are talking about something not very significant, the speech of the individual is accelerating. It is also possible to observe the acceleration of the rate of speech, when an individual does not want to draw attention of the interlocutor to one or other of the moments in the statement (it is often possible to meet in advertising).

In addition, the pace can characterize the individual psychological characteristics of the speaker, which determine his speech mechanisms. Also important is the social status of the speaker, his desire to create a certain impression, etc.

5. Emphasis

Reception, used to highlight any element of speech (syllable, word) from a number of similar elements. It is carried out due to the change of certain acoustic characteristics of this element - increase in the tone of pronunciation, increase in intensity, etc.

There are such types of stress as:

- verbal (phonetic integrity of the word),

- syntagmatic (the boundaries of the syntagma),

- logical (underline the most important word),

- Phrase (completion of the statement).

6. Pause

It is a break (an element that stops speech). The mechanisms of speech in this case can be of two types:

- the sounding speech temporarily stops, there comes silence (actual pause),

- creation of the effect of a break in the sounding speech due to changes in melody, tempo or strength of stress on the syntagm border (psychological).

The intonational culture of speech in oratory was always given considerable attention, dating back to the times of Antiquity. The oratorical theorists in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome studied the melody of a melody, distinguished it from a musical one, characterized the pace, rhythm, pauses, and evaluated the importance of distinguishing certain semantic parts in speech.

KS Stanislavsky in his studies of the role of intonation in the system of theatrical art wrote that the nature of intonation, the color of the voice depends on the sound of both vowels and consonants: "Vowels - the river, consonants - the shores." To master perfection intonation, one must know certain anatomical and physiological mechanisms of speech:

- the necessary positions of the mouth, lips, and tongue, which form these or other sounds (the device of the speech apparatus and its resonators),

- the specificity of the shade of sound, depending on the cavity in which it resonates and where it is directed.

Subsequently, these observations had a great impact on the development of technologies of expressive reading and speech.