Speaking.
| Number | 1000 |
|---|---|
| Year | 1996 |
| Drawer | 18 |
| Entry Date | 07/01/1998 |
| Authors | Fowler, Carol A. |
| Contact | |
| Publication | Handbook of Perception and Action, Volume 2, edited by Heuer, H. and S. Keele, Academic Press Ltd., pp. 503-560. |
| url | http://www.haskins.yale.edu/Reprints/HL1000.pdf |
| Abstract | Language users can speak understandably about almost anything, and they can do so almost anywhere. Moreover, the sequences of words composing their utterances can be novel in the experience both of the speaker and of the hearer. All that is required for novel utterances to be understood, roughly, is a competent speaker and a competent listener. A theory of the speaker’s competence helps to define problem of speech motor control. Consider, for example, the problem of sequencing that arises from the linguistic requirement, if understandable utterances are allowed sometimes to be novel, that sentences and words have an internal structure. Comprehension of novel utterances by hearers is possible because utterances universally are composed of familiar parts; that is, all utterances are composed of words that, ideally, are in the lexicon of the hearer as well as of the speaker. More than that, the familiar words of a novel utterance are ordered or otherwise marked according to syntactic conventions of the language, and the syntactic conventions according to syntactic conventions allow the hearer to identify the roles of words in the utterance. Thereby they allow the listener to know the roles of the words’ referents in the event being talked about - even if the listener has not witness the event or anything much like it. |
| Notes |
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