UNITS OF LANGUAGE VS. SPEECH

Language and speech can be the two main objects of analysis in our attempt to understand the nature and functioning of oral verbal communication. These global concepts structurally can be divided into smaller units. Here we will outline in brief the taxonomy of language versus speech units. Ch. W. Kreidler gives the description of the LANGUAGE UNITS as follows:

In their use of languagespeakers express themselves mainly in sentences which can be organized into texts.

Sentences consist of phrases, and phrases consist of words. Every word consists of at least one morpheme, a minimal unit that contributes in some way to the meaning of the word.

A morpheme is expressed in some sequence of the phonemes of a language. A phoneme is an abstract unit (‘a sound in the mind’) which is realized in speech as different segments in different positions.

The features which are present in all the allophones are distinctive features; those which are present in one or several but not all the allophones are redundant features.

Phonology may also be thought of as a collection of phonemes and a collection of rules for putting these units together to express the meanings of morphemes, words, phrases, sentences and texts which are the units used in describing language.

Thus,the units of LANGUAGE from largest to smallest are:

TEXT→SENTENCE→PHRASE→WORD→MORPHEME→PHONEME→DISTINCTIVE FEATURE

The units of SPEECH:

1. The concept of discourseis used to refer to any act of speech which occurs in a place and during a given period of time. Discourse in this meaning is ‘spoken discourse’.

2. A discourse consists of at least one utterance, which is defined as a stretch of speech produced by a single speaker, with silence before and after, on the part of that speaker.

3. An utterance consists of at least one tone unit, a sequence of words spoken in a single breath, a stretch of speech which has describable melody or intonation, one out of a fairly small inventory of intonation contours that exist in the language.

4. Tone units are broken into smaller ‘chunks’ - rhythmic groups (= feet, phonetic words).

5. A rhythmic group consists of at least one syllableand usually a number of syllables.

6. A syllable consists of at least one segment and usually of more than one.

7.In the articulation of a segment, the vocal organs have some particular setting - the lips are rounded or stretched, the tongue is low in the mouth or not, it has a flat surface or not, the vocal cords are vibrating or not, etc. Each such position or movement is an articulatory feature. These features always occur in simultaneous bundles.

Thus, the units of SPEECH from largest to smallest are:

DISCOURSE→UTTERANCE→TONE UNIT→SYLLABLE→SEGMENT→ART1CULATORY FEATURE