THE DIMENSIONS OF HUMAN

COMMUNICATION

I have used some other sources in my lectures for this class:**

Owens, R.E., Farinella, K.A., & Metz (2015). Introduction to communication disorders: A lifespan evidence-based perspective (5th ed.). Boston: Pearson.

Justice, L.M., & Redle, E.E. (2014). Communication sciences and disorders: A clinical evidence-based approach (3rd ed.). New Jersey: Pearson Education

Hulit, L.M., Fahey, K.R., & Howard, M.R. (2015). Born to talk: An introduction to speech and language development (5th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Owens, R.E. (2014). Languge disorders: A functional approach to assessment and intervention (6th ed.). New Jersey: Pearson Education.

Roseberry-McKibbin, C., & Hegde, M.N. (2015). Advanced review of speech-language pathology: Study guide for PRAXIS and comprehensive examination (4th ed.). Austin, TX: Pro-Ed.

This is in press, and will be out in 2015.

A terrific resource:** Paul, R., & Norbury, C.F. (2012). Language

disorders from infancy through adolescence: Listening, speaking, writing, and communicating (4th ed.). St. Louis, MO: Elsevier.

And workshops I have attended for CEUs:**

ASHA 2013, Chicago

ASHA Schools Conference Long Beach, 2013

CSHA, 2014, San Francisco

ASHA Schools Conference, Pittsburgh, 7/14

Why is all of this information about child language

development important?** We need to recgonize what is typical and

what is not typical so we can intervene as early as possible in children’s lives

Over 70% of America’s prisoners…

I. COMMUNICATION** Definition: The process of sending and

receiving messages that serve to transmit information between persons or groups

Communicative competence occurs when speakers effectively influence their listeners’ behaviors

Most human interactions have an underlying agenda

II. VERBAL AND NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION

A. Nonverbal Communication

B. Verbal Communication** Involves the use of words to exchange

ideas

Auditory-oral—spoken language

Visual-graphic—written, pictures, gestures (gestures that are systematic—e.g., sign language)

C. Extralinguistic Aspects of Verbal Communication

III. SPEECH** Physical production of sounds to

communicate meaning through the neuromuscular control of the structures of the vocal tract

Involves articulation, voice, resonation, and fluency

Phonology:** Study of the sound systems of a language

We have the IPA

English orthography is problematic:

Bough, thought, rough, though, through

IV. LINGUISTICS** Linguistics is the study of language

We are most concerned with 2 types of linguistics

Sociolinguistics…

Developmental linguistics…

V. LANGUAGE** Language is the system of arbitrary verbal

symbols that speakers put in order according to a conventional code to communicate ideas and feelings or to influence the behavior of others

Expressive language…

Receptive language…

Linguistic competence…** Refers to our

hypothetical, unconscious linguistic ability

Represents speakers’ idealized, underlying knowledge of their language

Linguistic performance…** Refers to a speaker’s

production of linguistic units

Influenced by limitations such as fatigue, memory lapses, distractions, illness, etc.

VI. THE LINGUISTIC ASPECTS OF LANGUAGE

A. Semantics

Semantics involves:

Paul & Norbury, 2012:

Word relations in semantics:** How do meanings of words

interact with each other?

For example, we have antonyms, which are opposites:**

Binary antonyms-no middle ground (alive vs. dead).

Gradable antonyms: Represent 2 different points on a continuum (attractive vs. homely)

Synonyms:** Different words that carry similar meanings

Scared/afraid

Beautiful/pretty

Hard/difficult

In therapy for LI (language impaired) students:

Semantic relations:** This term describes the role that each noun

in a sentence has in relation to the verb in the sentence

For example, “Daddy” assumes 2 different semantic relations:**

I’m looking for Daddy’s ball (Daddy is the possessor)

Daddy threw the ball (Daddy is the agent or actor who instigated the action)

Semantics also involves a child’s knowledge of:**

Words with multiple meanings (rock, pound)

Deictic words whose referents change depending on who is speaking (this, that, here, there)

Categories—mental constructs that allow a child to group similar words together

The new Common Core State Standards…

What categories can you think of that a kindergartener might

need to know?

B. Pragmatics** Practical use of language in social

interaction

Focuses on the speaker’s achieving a practical outcome through using language as a tool

Speaker and listener roles differ due to social context

Justice & Redle 2014 state that:

2 types of speech acts:

Direct speech act:** Only has one interpretation

“Please pass the butter.”

Discourse:** Conversation;

extended verbal exchange on some topic

Discourse involves:

Youtube example:** In the following clip from Big Bang Theory

(Sheldon and Amy in car with Penny):

Penny is driving Sheldon to meet Amy for the first time—it is a first date

What rules of discourse do Sheldon and Amy violate?

Discourse also involves:

C. Morphology** The study of minimal,

meaningful units of language

Morphemes are the smallest elements of language that carry meaning

Free morphemes stand alone

Bound morphemes must be attached to free morphemes to carry meaning

Types of Free Morphemes:**

Grammatical morphemes/function words: is, the, of, and, a, but

Lexical morphemes/content words: words that carry the “meat”

For example: cloud, university, taco, student, Harry Potter, run, walk, write, funny, crazy, blue

Types of bound morphemes:**

Inflectional: alter the meaning of the free morpheme to which they are attached without deriving a new grammatical category

Usually these are suffixes (see p. 27) such as plural –s, possessive –s, past tense –ed, etc.

Derivational morphemes:

In children’s language…**

Inflectional morphemes appear before derivational morphemes

The new Common Core State Standards

With one girl, LaShon, a first grade 6-year old…

We worked with her first grade language arts book

I would have LaShon read each page, and we would talk about the vocabulary and what it meant, focusing first on comprehension and decoding

Then we picked out words from the text that had suffixes

LaShon wrote them on the board and underlined the

suffixes She said she thought it was fun!

D. Syntax** 1. Definition

Specifies rules for sequencing or ordering words to form phrases and sentences

Deals with rules for word order in a language

2. Types of Sentences

McCormack et al., 2011 “A nationally representative study of the association between communication impairment at 4-5 years and children’s life activities” Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 54, 1328-1348.

Hayiou-Thomas, Dale, & Plomin (2014) Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing

Research (June issue) Longitudinal study of 2,923 twin pairs in the

United Kingdom

Questions: 1) Were parent referrals accurate? And 2) did language problems at age 4 predict language problems at age 12?

Findings of Hayiou-Thomas et al.:

Our job as speech-language pathologists…