Speech and speech activity. Types and functions of speech.

Correlation of speech-language concepts

Speech is a historically established form of communication between people through linguistic structures created on the basis of certain rules.

In modern psychological science, language

is understood as a system of signs that serves as a means of human communication, mental activity, a way of expressing a person’s self-awareness, transmission from generation to generation and storage of information. The historical basis of language is the work and joint activities of people. Language exists and is realized through speech. Words in language are carriers of concepts, making it possible to meaningfully reflect reality, store and transmit information, and control human behavior. The process of language acquisition has a huge impact on all aspects of the human psyche and is a condition for the formation of his consciousness.

Language is developed by society and is a form of reflection of their social existence in the public consciousness of people. Moreover, one of the phenomena of language is that each person finds a ready-made language spoken by those around him, and in the process of his development assimilates it. However, having become a native speaker, a person becomes a potential source of development and modernization of the language he speaks.

Every language has, first of all, a certain system of meaningful words, which is called the lexical composition of the language. In addition, a language has a certain system of various forms of words and phrases, which constitutes the grammar of the language, and also has a certain sound, or phonetic, composition, characteristic only of a specific language.

In psychology, the following main functions of language

1) a means of existence, transmission and assimilation of socio-historical experience;

2) a means of communication (communication);

3) a tool of intellectual activity (perception, memory, thinking, imagination).

Performing the first function, language serves as a means of encoding information. Performing the function of a means of communication, language allows you to influence the interlocutor - direct or indirect. The last function of language is associated with conscious planning of one’s actions and solving mental problems.

If language is a system of signs and symbols, then speech is the process of using language.

Speech is a historically established form of communication between people through language. Speech communication itself is carried out according to the rules of a specific language. Speech is carried out according to the rules of the language, and at the same time, under the influence of a number of factors, it changes and improves the language (for example, under the influence of social practice, the development of science, the mutual influence of languages, etc.). Without speech, it becomes unthinkable for a person to master knowledge and form his consciousness.

If words and sentences are considered the main structural units of language, then in verbal communication these are utterances as units of meaning. The main feature of such statements is their appeal and targeting.

Speech production models

Learning theory.

Generation and reinforcement are the main mechanisms for the formation and development of speech in humans.

This theory is not able to explain the speed with which a child masters speech in early childhood. In addition, for the development of any abilities, inclinations are necessary, which in themselves cannot be acquired as a result of learning. From this position it is difficult to explain children's word creation.

Chomsky's theory
. From birth, the human body and brain have some specific inclinations for the acquisition of speech in its basic attributes. These inclinations mature by approximately 1 year and open up opportunities for accelerated speech development from 1 to 3 years. Within broader age boundaries, it covers the period of life from 1 to puberty (this refers not only to the acquisition of language as a means of communication, but also to its mastery at the conceptual level as a means of thinking). During this period, speech development occurs without complications, but outside of this period, language acquisition is difficult or even impossible.
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cognitive theory
. The development of speech depends on the child’s inherent ability from birth to perceive and intellectually process information. This explains children's spontaneous word creation. It is assumed that speech development depends on brain development, and not vice versa (Piaget). It has been established that the first statements made by children usually refer to what they already understand. Children usually talk about what interests them. Consequently, the development of speech is also influenced by the child’s motivation.
psycholinguistic position
. The formation of an increasingly perfect structure of speech: the transition from thought to word and from word to thought, which become more and more conscious and rich in content.

Functions of speech

communicative function of speech
– includes its functions as a means of expression and as a means of influence. There are three aspects to the communicative function of speech:

informational (knowledge transfer),
expressive (helps convey the speaker’s feelings and attitudes towards the subject of the message)
volitional (aimed at subordinating the listener to the speaker’s intention).

educational
(its other name is accumulative). Most of what an adult knows about the world came to him with language.
nominative
or nominative. Naming is an integral part of cognition. A person, generalizing a mass of specific phenomena, highlighting the essential ones, feels the need to consolidate the acquired knowledge in words. This is how the name appears. If not for it, the concept would remain an ethereal, speculative abstraction. The nominative function of language serves to orient a person in space and time, and it also goes hand in hand with the cognitive function, it participates in the process of understanding the world.
regulatoryI
function. This function is noted in external and internal speech. Both play the role of a plan of behavior and actions of the subject: this is a textual or mental project of his upcoming actions; projects of moral relations and everyday life, the structure of the social structure of society, these are work plans, mental preparation for certain actions, including statements.

External and internal speech

Modern psychological science has adopted the differentiation of speech into several types

External speech

- verbal communication using linguistic means perceived by ear.
Oral speech is verbal communication using linguistic means that are perceived by ear. The processes of generating oral speech include the links of orientation, simultaneous planning, speech implementation and control. Oral speech is divided into: monologue and dialogic
.

Written speech is verbal communication using written texts. This type differs from oral speech not only in that it uses graphics, but also in grammatical and stylistic terms. Written speech is characterized by a complex compositional and structural organization, which must be specially mastered.

Inner speech

- silent speech process. These are different types of language use outside the process of real communication. There are several types of inner speech:

internal pronunciation, i.e. “speech to oneself”, this type retains the structure of external speech, but lacks phonation;
inner speech as a means of thinking, in this case it uses specific units and has a specific structure;
internal programming - the formation and consolidation of the intention of a speech utterance in specific units.

Kinetic speech.

This type of speech has been preserved in humans since ancient times.
Initially, this was the main and only type of speech. Over time, this type of speech has lost its functions and is now used mainly as emotional and expressive elements of speech - gestures. Very often we accompany our speech with gestures, which
gives it additional expressiveness.

Egocentric speech according to Vygotsky and Piaget.

In elementary and middle preschool age, children tend to monologue. Children at this age sometimes speak out loud without addressing anyone. J. Piaget called this monologue speech egocentric. Egocentric speech, according to Piaget:

1) does not serve the purpose of the message, does not perform communicative functions; this speech is for yourself; it proceeds regardless of whether it is listened to and understood;

2) being a speech for oneself, speech comes from one’s own point of view, not taking into account the point of view;

3) it is primarily the child’s speech about himself.

Piaget contrasts monologue speech as egocentric speech with socialized speech. Socialized speech is speech that performs the function of a message. This includes communicating thoughts, criticism, questions and answers, requests, orders, etc.

Piaget believes that egocentric speech is genetically primary; social speech develops from it, or at least by repressing it. Egocentric speech seems to Piaget to be only an accompaniment to action, essentially not performing any function.

L.S. Vygotsky, who paid considerable attention to the problem of egocentric speech, believed that egocentric speech lies on the path of development going from external to internal speech. According to Vygotsky, it performs the child’s intellectual function of comprehending and planning action. Intellectualizing inner speech, which is not only speech-thinking and planning, it is often saturated with intense emotionality.

Contrary to Piaget, it must be recognized that egocentric speech is social in nature. Egocentric speech is formed on a social basis and represents the most striking proof of how deeply, at its very roots, human nature is social. Contrary to Vygotsky, it can be argued that egocentric speech differs from inner speech in its psychological nature: in any case, it is not only speech-thinking.

Development of monologue and dialogue

The main initial type of oral speech is speech in the form of a conversation. This kind of speech is called colloquial speech,

or
dialogical (dialogue).
Its main feature is that it is a speech actively supported by the interlocutor, using the simplest turns of language and phrases. As a result, colloquial speech is psychologically the simplest form of speech. It does not require a detailed expression of speech. In such cases, one word can replace an entire phrase.

Another form of speech is speech delivered by one person, while the listeners only perceive the speaker's speech, but do not directly participate in it. Such speech is called monologue ,

or
a monologue .
Monologue speech is, for example, the speech of a speaker, lecturer, rapporteur, etc. Monologue speech is psychologically more complex than dialogic speech. It requires the speaker to be able to express his thoughts coherently and strictly consistently. At the same time, the speaker must evaluate how the information transmitted to him is assimilated by the listeners, i.e., he must monitor not only his speech, but also the audience. And also a monologue is a speech alone with oneself. The monologue is not directed to the immediate listener and, accordingly, is not designed for a response from the interlocutor.

A monologue can be either unprepared or pre-thought out.

When characterizing these two types of oral speech - dialogical and monological speech - we must keep in mind not their external, but their psychological difference. In their external form, these two types of speech may be similar to each other. So, for example, a monologue can be constructed in its external form as a dialogical speech, that is, the speaker periodically addresses either the listeners or an imaginary opponent.

Both dialogic and monologue speech can be active

or
passive.
Both of these terms are, of course, conditional and characterize the activity of the speaker or listener. The active form of speech is the speech of the speaking person, while the speech of the listening person appears in a passive form. It should be noted that in children the development of active and passive forms of speech does not occur simultaneously. The child first of all learns to understand someone else’s speech, and then begins to speak himself. However, even at a more mature age, people differ in the degree of development of active and passive forms of speech. It often happens that a person understands another person’s speech well, but poorly conveys his own thoughts. Conversely, a person can speak quite well, but does not know how to listen to another.

Basic properties of inner speech, its connection with thinking

Inner speech can precede external speech (oral and written) and be a planning phase in its implementation. Since it is addressed to oneself, there is no need to carry out the statement in an expanded form. From here we can deduce the properties of inner speech

curling,
conciseness,
fragmentation

and can exist on the basis of mental reproduction of individual words that carry the main semantic load. The words that a person uses in internal speech differ from the words of external speech in that they are fragmentary, abbreviated and can merge with other words. On the basis of inner speech, the intellectual and spiritual life of the individual is carried out, his moral views and beliefs, dreams and ideals, desires and aspirations, doubts and beliefs are manifested.

The word is the “sign” that allows human thinking to develop to the level of abstract thinking. However, the word is also a means of communication, so it is part of speech. At the same time, a specific feature of the word is that, being devoid of meaning, the word no longer refers to either thought or speech, but, acquiring its meaning, it immediately becomes an organic part of both. Taking into account this feature of the word, Vygotsky believed that the unity of speech and thinking lies precisely in the meaning of the word. Moreover, the highest level of such unity is verbal thinking.

Thinking and speech have different genetic roots. Initially they developed separately. The original function of speech was communication, and speech itself probably arose out of the need to organize the joint activities of people. In turn, there are types of thinking that are generally not associated with speech, for example, visual-effective, or practical. But the further development of thinking and speech proceeded in close interrelation. Thus, at the early stages of development, when people’s thinking took place in the form of practical intellectual activity in relation to objects that could satisfy human needs, speech consolidated knowledge about these objects, expressing them in the form of names.

At these early stages of historical development, speech consisted of not yet differentiated individual speech units with very general meanings. Therefore, verbal communication could only take place in a specific situation, where practical action was the process in which words acquired specific meanings. Therefore, at these stages of development, speech was always included in practical activities. Such speech is called sympraxic.

Subsequently, as language becomes more complex, thinking gradually frees itself from its immediate unity with action and increasingly acquires the character of internal, “ideal” activity. As a result, a period comes when thinking completely begins to take place in the form of an internal process of reflecting reality, using verbal concepts for this. This level of development of thinking required more developed speech corresponding to the level of development of thinking. This type of speech is called internal speech.

Thus, speech and thinking form a complex unity with each other.

Beginning of speech development

Speech as a science began to be studied in depth in the 20th century. Moreover, since ancient times, there have been sciences that were also aimed at understanding speech, such as linguistics, logic, poetics, theory of literature, rhetoric and the theory of stage speech. As for the 20th century, it brought new directions in the study of speech, such as psycholinguistics, communication theory, child speech studies, bilingualism theory, and sociolinguistics. Impetus for development was given to functional stylistics, studies of spoken language, phonology, functional and communicative approaches to grammar, statistics of language and speech, semiotics, phonology and computer languages arose. At the same time, the functions and forms of speech began to be actively studied. Psychology studies the process of information exchange in close connection with thinking and consciousness.

Features of a child's speech

As mentioned earlier, the child’s speech is initially autonomous.
Following the autonomous stage of speech development, children begin to develop an egocentric type of speech. In addition to communicating with others, the child accompanies his actions with auditory speech, this lasts until the age of seven, at which time the child’s vocabulary also increases to approximately 4,500 words. Gradually, egocentric speech turns into internal speech, and at the same time the functions of the child’s speech change. At the first stages, children learn nouns and verbs, and later adjectives are added. It has also been proven that it is in preschool age, in the process of developing a child’s speech, that he completely masters both the sound of his native language and the chain of constructing a grammatically correct sentence, that is, the child learns to initially construct full-fledged sentences, this happens almost subconsciously.

The functions of speech in psychology, like science itself, still continue to be actively studied. Much attention is paid to the study of the characteristics of children's speech, since it is believed that it is at this age that the formation of the thinking and consciousness of an adult begins.

Audio Communication Features

Any child, gradually developing, begins to master first gestures and movements, and then moves on to the perception and use of sounds, which later become connected speech, taking into account all the rules and traditions accepted in a given ethnic group.
Communication through sounds has its own functions, which emerged gradually and do not reflect the functions of speech:

Investment in the spoken word has an emotional connotation, which allows you to influence the perception of the opponent and, in some cases, increases the possibility of benefiting from the contact.
Imitation of sounds - thanks to sound imitation, some objects, creatures and phenomena got their names, since this phenomenon is designed to reflect the sound they make.
The expression of thoughts is associative. Some objects got their names due to their similarity to other objects. So, for example, a tree leaf is called so because of the sound it makes; a paper leaf took its name from it - the sounds of folding were similar to the rustling of trees. But the rolled sheet is externally associated with paper and has the same name. Thus, a number of associations gave three completely different objects the same name.

Inner speech

Inner speech serves to support the individual’s thinking; it does not include sound. Due to the fact that it is deprived of the primary function of speech - the transmission of a message, internal speech becomes a form of thought. In this case, a process of internal dialogue, or imaginary dialogue, occurs in a person’s thinking with some object with which it is not possible to communicate in person.

It is often devoid of a number of elements typical of the communicative function of speech, and is also significantly compressed.

External speech

External speech is used primarily to convey information to other individuals, being the transformation of thought into something tangible.
The types and functions of speech in this case are more extensive. Types of external speech:

Monologue is a type of speech in which there is only one subject, serves to convey knowledge and information of a large volume, is considered a very complex process and assumes high speech development of the subject.
Dialogue is a mutual, alternating exchange of information between two or more individuals.
A remark is an emotional response to an opponent’s statement or action.

Theories of the emergence of speech in people

Since the development of psychology as a science, interest in the study of the phenomenon of speech has not waned. Thanks to this popularity, a number of theories of its origin have arisen, most of them are absurd and have no right to exist, because they do not solve the problem of the genesis of language and do not confirm what functions speech performs. Here are some of the most popular theories at different times:

Social contract theory was popular in the 18th century and stated that speech arose to conclude this very contract.
The theory of the instinctive origin of language cannot explain the difference between human speech and animal language in that the first is conscious and designated.
The theory of the “onomatopoeic” origin of language is that speech is based on onomatopoeic words that exist in different languages (for example, children's words tick-tock, meow-meow, and others). But it has not been developed, since these words are intended to depict an object, and the function of speech is to display it.
Noiret theory - according to this theory, speech was formed in the process of hard work and is based on a combination of sounds made when performing a certain type of work, thus in a team the connection between an action and the sound associated with it caused the formation of speech.
Marr's theory is based on the works of Marx and Engels and represents the following concept. Language is a product of socio-historical development in the process of production and is refracted through public consciousness. It is impossible to consider a language only from a physiological-phonetic point of view; when studying it, one must take into account its semantic side. Because it consists of phonemes - separate conscious parts, and not of instinctively produced sounds.