LB Chapter 3 VI. Summary 119-120

VI. SUMMARY

Language as any other type of behavior, is seen as a manifestation of intricate physiological processes. In higher mammals the processes have many common denominators, but they have also undergone modifications in accordance with specializaion in behavior. Respiration, which is in many ways identical in a wide variety of species, shows particularly well forms of adaptations to species-specific behavior patterns. Some such adaptations have been described for the execution of speech and vocalization.

語言可以當作是任何其他類型的行為,被視為一種十分複雜的生理過程。根據行為上特別化，較高的哺乳動物的心理過程中有許多共同點,但他們在過程中也有些微的調整。呼吸，這是各種各樣的物種大多相似的部分,顯示出適應良好的物種之間的行為模式。一些這類調整已被描述為進行講話和發聲。

From examination of speech production, the following points emerged:

(1) The neuromuscular correlates of speech sounds are muscular contraction patterns among one and the same set of muscles.

(2) In most instances, physiological events precede the acoustic events of speech sounds.

(3) For individual speech sounds, the duration of physiological events may be twice as long as the duration of acoustic events.

(4) Hence, the sequential arrangemetns of muscular events require preplanning with anticipation of later events; therefore, the occurrence of some events is contingent upon other events yet to come, which may be adduced as proof that sequencing on a neuromuscular level is not accomplished by an associative mechanism.

(5) The interdigitation of muscular correlates of phones is mirrored also on higher levles of segmentation. Thus ordering-phenomena on all levels of speech and language appear to be related and to exhibit striking formal similarites.

On the neuromuscular level the interdigitation phenomenon poses a problem of timing owing to the fast rate of sound production. Throughout the duration of individual speech sounds, muscles must be activated ( or de-activated) at such rapid succession that a neuronal firing order must be assumed that functions with an accuracy of milliseconds. This can be accomplished only by automatisms consisting of intricate time-patterns. Patterning in time (in contrast to temporal disorder) is based on an underlying rhythmic metric. The hypothesis is advanced that the temporal patterns on which the neuromuscular automatisms are based habe at their roots a physiological rhythm consisting of periodic changes of "states" at a rate of 6 +_ 1 cps. Indirect evidence is cited that articulation itself reflects such a basic rhythm.

There are also psychological and neurological rhythms or basic temporal units and their possible relationship to the speech rhythm is discussed.

Vocabulary:

intricate
(形) 複雜的, 纏結的, 錯綜的

common denominator
公分母; 共同特性

execution
(名) 實行; 履行; 執行; 完成

neuromuscular
(形) 神經肌肉的

contraction
(名) 收縮, 傳染, 縮寫式

contingent
(形) 可能發生的; 暫時的; 附隨的

automatism
(名) 自動, 自動作用, 自動力

neurological
(形) 神經學的; 神經病學的