Language and Speech

In a sentence comprehension task subjects had to select a correct picture from an array of four presented immediately after hearing a relevant sentence. Sentences were representative of twelve different grammatical structures and were eight words in length. In each array three incorrect pictures (distractors) were representations of lexical variants of the presented sentence. Each variant was derived from the original sentence by changing a content word in either an initial, middle or terminal location respectively of the sentence.

Three groups of subjects were tested. They were drawn from Nursery Schools, Primary Schools and from Special Schools for the Educationally Subnormal (ESN). All subjects could be regarded as having a pre-school level of language development.

Gross differences in overall error rate between groups were observed though patterns of choices among distractors were the same for all groups. No part of the sentences (in terms of lexical content) appeared to be more vulnerable to information loss than any other. Analysis of successive choices within items showed that failure to comprehend was associated with loss of information about specific lexical items.

Theoretically, results are interpreted in relation to a limited capacity information processing model of speech perception.

The present study was designed to compare the factorial structure of oral coding patterns for a middle-class and a working-class group in terms of a Bernstein derived thesis of greater differentiation and specificity for middle-class subjects because of their ability to manipulate more of the semantic and structural resources of language. Twenty-eight indices of oral coding elaboration were obtained from 40 middle-class and 40 working-class tertiary students. Pearson Product-Moment correlations were obtained and, by using principal components factor analysis, the middle-class matrix yielded nine factors, the working-class matrix eight. By interpretation of the factor patterns and statistical comparisons using Burt's coefficient of congruence, the thesis of greater differentiation and specificity in middle-class code elaboration was sustained.

By means of a short integrative survey of studies of language development the complexity of this area is demonstrated. Consequently, the use of multivariate designs and the concentration upon the performance aspects of verbal behaviour is advocated. The pragmatic and semantic aspects are analysed as the two main dimensions affecting the verbal statement. The pragmatic dimension is subdivided into person variables and variables of the behaviour setting. Further subdivisions of the person variables are made and possibilities to subdivide the other dimensions are suggested.

The theoretical argument is supported by illustrative examples of the verbal behaviour of two young children. The changing composition of the communicative acts of children, which are composed of verbal and non-verbal messages are further analysed and illustrated. It is concluded that the search for language competence has to be a search for a multitude of psychological variables including competence in non-verbal communication and in the evaluation of the information needs of the receiver.

The English of Los Angeles Mexican-Americans ranges from the local standard to Chicano English, a non-standard ethnic dialect. Speech approaching Chicano English was negatively stereotyped by Anglo-American university students on scales related to success, ability, and social awareness. Forty-eight UCLA students rated 4 pairs of matched guise voices on 15 semantic differential scales. Dialect differences consistently affected their rating. But raters also attended to non-dialect voice differences, especially for more standard English voices. In rating standard English, students used a different, more complex procedure for judging personality.

Subjects were presented with single consonants, consonant-consonant pairs and consonant-vowel pairs, and asked to produce words beginning with these letters. Three presentation methods were used: visual tachistoscopic, acoustic with the letters " spelled ", and acoustic with the letters pronounced as they would be in a word. Latency measures revealed that the acoustic " spelling " condition took longer than the other two, and consonant-vowel took longer than consonant-consonant. These results are interpreted as supporting a conception of verbal memory in which initial consonant clusters are stored as integral units.

An investigation of the effects of experiential and linguistic variables on the preference for within sentence connectives. 8 items were constructed, each consisting of 2 clauses describing sequential events which varied in the perceived frequency of relationship and perceived temporal order (determined by subject ratings). There were 4 conditions: the clause order was either congruent with the perceived temporal order (A-B order) or opposite to it (B-A order), and the clauses were either in the Past or the Present Tense. Subjects in each condition (n = 13) ranked connectives in order of preference for each item. Results showed that frequency of relationship between described events was most likely to be a determining factor in connective preference when the clauses were in the A-B order or they were in the Past Tense. These results were substantiated by an independent absolute judgment procedure in which each sentence was rated for acceptability. Different groups (n = 29) rated the sentences in the A-B order and the B-A order. Generally the results were in agreement with the preference task, although an adaption level effect was apparent in the judgments. These results are discussed in terms of the degrees of freedom of interpretation allowed by the various linguistic connectives.

Junior school children were found to produce unidentifiable utterances in dichotic as well as monotic shadowing. The phenomenon was investigated by providing practice at increased presentation rates of the input and exploring right ear advantages for verbal material. The poor articulation increased with higher input rates and could not be explained by lack of lateralization. An explanation in terms of inadequate monitoring of speech production appeared most appropriate.