How is our speech divided into types and subtypes?

One of the greatest achievements of mankind is speech. This is a unique phenomenon that only people can perceive in full. With the help of this tool, people think, communicate with each other, and express their feelings. In ancient Greece, man was referred to as a “talking animal,” but there is a very significant difference. After all, people not only build a sound system of signals that convey their feelings and thoughts, but also use it to describe the entire world around them. Types of speech in psychology are classified and divided into several groups.

Basic speech forms

Languages ​​that are used all over the world have one basis - speech. It is quite multifaceted and has many forms. But all the main types of speech in psychology are divided into two groups: 1) oral; 2) written. But they are not something opposite to each other, but are closely intertwined. Their main similarity is the sound system they are both based on. Almost all languages, except hieroglyphic ones, consider written speech as a kind of transmission of oral speech. Thus, an analogy can be drawn with music. Any performer, looking at the notes, time after time perceives the melody that the composer wanted to convey, and if there are any changes, they are insignificant. So the reader reproduces the phrase or word that is written on paper, each time voicing an almost identical scale.

Dialogue or conversational speech

Every time a person talks, he uses the original form of speech – oral. Characteristics of types of speech in psychology call it dialogical or conversational. Its main feature is the active support of the other party, that is, the interlocutor. For it to exist there must be at least two people who communicate using phrases and simple turns of language. From a psychological point of view, this type of speech is the simplest. A detailed presentation is not required here, since the interlocutors during the dialogue understand each other well, and it will not be difficult for them to mentally complete the phrase that the other person said. The types of speech in psychology are very diverse, but dialogue is different in that everything said is understandable precisely in the context of a given situation. There is no need for verbosity here, because each phrase replaces many sentences.

TYPES OF SPEECH, THEIR PSYCHOLOGICAL FEATURES.

SPEECH is the process of communication between people through language; a means of thinking in cognitive activity. In psychology, there are two main types of speech: external and internal.

External speech includes oral (dialogue and monologue) and written. Dialogue is direct communication between two or more people. Dialogical speech is supported speech; the interlocutor asks clarifying questions during the conversation, giving remarks that can help complete the thought (or reorient it). A type of dialogic communication is a conversation in which the dialogue has a thematic focus.

Monologue speech is a long, consistent, coherent presentation of a system of thoughts and knowledge by one person. This type of speech also develops in the process of communication, but the nature of communication here is different: the monologue is uninterrupted, therefore the speaker has an active, gestural influence. In monologue speech, compared to dialogical speech, the semantic side changes most significantly. Monologue speech is coherent, contextual. Its content must first of all satisfy the requirements of consistency and evidence in presentation. Another condition, inextricably linked with the first, is the grammatically correct construction of sentences.

A monologue does not tolerate incorrect construction of phrases. It places a number of requirements on the tempo and sound of this type of speech.

The substantive side of the monologue must be combined with the expressive side. Expressiveness is created both by linguistic means (the ability to use a word, phrase, syntactic construction that most accurately convey the speaker’s intention) and by non-linguistic communicative means (intonation, a system of pauses, the division of the pronunciation of a word or several words, which performs the function of a kind of emphasis, facial expressions and gestures).

Written speech is a type of monologue speech. It is more developed than oral monologue speech. This is due to the fact that written speech presupposes the absence of feedback from the interlocutor. In addition, this type of speech does not have any additional means of influencing the perceiver, except for the words themselves, their order and punctuation marks that organize the sentence.

Inner speech is a special type of speech activity. It acts as a planning phase in practical and theoretical activities. Therefore, internal speech, on the one hand, is characterized by fragmentation and fragmentation. On the other hand, misunderstandings in the perception of the situation are excluded here. Therefore, inner speech is extremely situational, in this it is close to dialogical. Inner speech is formed on the basis of external speech.

The translation of external speech into internal speech (interiorization) is accompanied by a reduction (shortening) of the structure of external speech, and the transition from internal speech to external speech (exteriorization) requires, on the contrary, the deployment of the structure of internal speech, its construction in accordance not only with logical rules, but also with grammatical ones.

The information content of various types of speech depends primarily on the value of the facts reported in it and on the ability of its author to communicate.

The understandability of speech depends, firstly, on its semantic content, secondly, on its linguistic features and, thirdly, on the relationship between its complexity, on the one hand, and the level of development, range of knowledge and interests of listeners, on the other.

Expressiveness of all types of speech requires taking into account the situation of the speech, clarity and distinctness of pronunciation, correct intonation, and the ability to use words and expressions with figurative and figurative meaning.

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Monologue speech

The types of speech in psychology are quite well covered, and one of them is monologue. It differs from a conversational one in that only one person directly participates in it. The rest are passive listeners who simply perceive it, but do not take part. This type of speech is often used by speakers, public figures, or teachers. It is believed that a monologue story is much more difficult than a dialogic conversation, because the speaker must have a number of skills. He must construct his narrative coherently and consistently, clearly explain complex points, and all language norms must be observed. He must also select exactly those means and methods that will be available to a particular audience; he must take into account the psychological mood of the listeners. And, most importantly, you need to be able to control yourself in any situation.

Speech defines a person

Speech defines a person.

Speech is a unique phenomenon that gives the opportunity to give a versatile characterization to a person; it serves as a conductor of thoughts, knowledge, feelings, and intentions between people. Its content reflects the entire psychology of a person, which, undoubtedly, is a good reason for its use in such a science as personal psychodiagnostics.

Signs of a person’s oral speech carry information about its various properties, which can be divided into personal information and semantic information.

Personal information is the main one, more valuable than semantic information, since it is it that characterizes any oral utterances in terms of vocabulary, style, grammatical structure and level, degree of proficiency in logical thinking. These signs determine the physical, psychological and social image of the individual in question, the level of his intellectual abilities, gender, age and constitutional characteristics, distinctive anatomical features of the speech-producing tract, as well as dialectal features determined by the geographical regions of the formation of oral speech.

If we define semantic information, then it is nothing more than the totality of information from each specific speech message (statement), which often indicates the general development of the individual, his professional knowledge, views on a particular issue and knowledge of certain facts, life circumstances.

As mentioned earlier, personal information is capable of giving the most extensive and global characterization of a speaking person, helping to create the most complete physiological and psychological portrait of him.

So, for example, the gender of a speaker can be established not only with the help of words belonging to a certain category of gender and analysis of the vocal range, but also by the emotional coloring of the speech itself. Psychologists say that women's speech is characterized by the most increased emotionality and expressiveness, while men's speech is more practical, i.e. emotions are expressed through the predominant use of rude and sometimes swear words, as well as irony.

Based on personal information, the age range of the speaker can be determined. As a rule, over the years the voice undergoes significant biological transformations, its intensity, pitch, timbre and volume change. The approximate age of a person can be indicated not only by the person’s voice itself, but also by his autobiological statements, the maturity of judgments and conclusions, which in most cases are formed under the influence of accumulated life experience.

The degree of a person’s culture and his level of education can be determined based on an analysis of his pronunciation, the vocabulary used in speech, the detail, completeness and “colors” of expressions of thought, as well as a variety of speech techniques. Literary processing of oral speech and the presence of terminological, professional and technical words in it indicate the intellectual development, degree of culture and level of education of a person. In most cases, people who have an extensive vocabulary and express their thoughts in voluminous and succinct phrases speak more measuredly, their speech is distinguished by the greatest expressiveness and consistency.

There is also a connection between an individual’s oral speech and his physical characteristics. It is reflected in its physiological and anatomical characteristics and is determined by the structure of the speech-forming system. For example, speech defects such as nasality and a lisp often indicate the presence of various diseases of the nervous system, and a singing voice may indicate a person’s height and chest volume.

A person’s geographic affiliation (his long stay or birth in a certain geographical point) is also determined by speech, and specifically by such a speech feature as a dialect, which expresses local speech characteristics and subtleties of the language. Such features include: grammatical forms (phonetic structure, conjugation, declension, combination of words) and prosodic features (stress, emphasis, intonation and rate of speech).

When determining the social characteristics of a speaker, the main analytical analysis is necessary to subject him to phraseological speech features, lexical features and the general content of speech, which indicate his belonging to a particular social group of people. In such a study, it is important to understand that any lexical features and phraseological nuances in speech communication, and even a certain vocabulary, are often determined by industrial relations, the specifics of any work activity and other processes related to relationships between people, living conditions and the environment around a person.

A person’s speech is his internal content, a psychophysical portrait, the formation of which depends not only on the innate characteristics of the individual, but also on the surrounding society, personal development and value system, which should be a mandatory motivation for the gradual transformation and increase in the level of intellectual and general development of everyone individual.

Margarita Strizh Rostov-on-Don

Active form of speech

Types of language and speech in psychology are also divided in relation to the one who speaks and the one who perceives. On this basis, passive and active speech are divided. The latter helps a person express his thoughts by sharing his experiences with others. There are special speech mechanisms that regulate and control active speech. They are located in the cortex of the left hemisphere of the brain, namely in the frontal part. This is a very important area, because if it is damaged, the person simply will not be able to talk. In speech therapy, this disorder is called “motor aphasia.”

Passive form

Active and passive types of speech in psychology are considered inseparable. It is difficult to talk about them briefly, because this is a very broad topic. It is believed that the child first masters passive speech. That is, he first tries to understand the people talking around him. To do this, he listens to them carefully and remembers first small words, and then phrases. This helps him say his first words and develop in this direction. Therefore, passive speech is that which we perceive. But this name is conditional, since many complex processes also occur during listening. We pronounce every word directed at us “to ourselves,” we think about it, although there are no external signs of such activity. But even here there are exceptions, because not everyone listens the same way: some catch every word, while others do not even understand the essence of the conversation. These types of speech in psychology are described as depending on the individual characteristics of a particular person. Some people are excellent at both actively speaking and passively receiving; some have difficulty with these two processes, while for others one of them predominates.

External speech

External speech types are divided into:

• conversational or dialogical;

This is a form of communication between people when the interlocutors actively maintain a conversation with each other. The communication process involves at least 2 people; their communication consists of using simple phrases and speech patterns. Psychology considers this type to be the simplest, since the conversation in most cases is relaxed, the interlocutors understand each other well. In such communication, light and small phrases are used, and verbosity is completely absent.

A remark belongs to colloquial speech. Its peculiarity is brevity, the presence of an interrogative or incentive sentence, and the syntactic structure is necessarily simple. A remark in most cases is a supportive means during which the interlocutor approves or objects to the conversation that is taking place.

• monologue;

In this type, only one person participates, who gives a large amount of information, and all present listeners act in a passive role. The monologue type is used in reports, lectures, and public speaking. Psychology has proven that monologue type of speech activity is one of the most difficult. The speaker must be able to construct his conversation in such a way as to clearly and clearly present all the arguments, while fully complying with language norms. When speaking to an audience, the speaker must select phrases in such a way that they are accessible and understandable to the listener. Such speech activity must be correctly constructed in order to begin and end concisely. Without planning and preparation, a monologue will never turn out meaningful and competent.

• active;

In psychology, there are several types of speech that differ in relation to the speaker and the listener. The generally accepted types of speech are passive and active. For an active form, special mechanisms must be activated in the left hemisphere of the brain and the frontal part. These two areas are completely responsible for speech activity, and any, even minimal damage can lead to problems. Speech therapists, as specialists in speech problems, work on the development of these areas, and disorders in them are called motor aphasia.

• passive;

Active and passive types of speech are considered inseparable, since they cannot exist without each other. Always in a conversation, one person will be active and the other will be passive. Psychology, as a science, claims that first a person learns passive speech (that is, listen carefully and remember), and then active speech (reproduce, form his own word combinations, phrases, sentences). Psychologists are still studying these types of speech and agree that both passive and active varieties are equally complex. Not all people in adulthood know how to listen carefully and remember what they say. Not everyone can speak beautifully and correctly, or logically form thoughts out loud.

• letter;

Considering that the classification of types of speech in psychology includes oral and written, the latter includes writing. The main difference between this type is the information carrier. Written language is entirely at the disposal of the reader. He has the opportunity to re-read certain parts of the text, he can take a selective reading or get acquainted with the denouement immediately, without reading the backstory. A letter is more convenient for someone who expresses their thoughts. You can re-read it, correct it, make changes or additions.

• kinetic.

In psychology, it is customary to talk about gestures as one of the varieties of speech. This variety appeared much earlier than oral and written, and has not yet lost its relevance. Even today we can understand our interlocutor by gestures. Speakers very often accompany their conversation with kinetic speech, thereby setting the audience in a certain emotional mood.

Kinetic speech is actively used by people who have problems with hearing or speech apparatus. They all communicate with each other using sign language. Such communication is more developed and convenient than that of ancient man.

Letter

As mentioned above, the main classification of types of speech in psychology divides it into oral and written. The main difference between the second one is that it has a material medium (paper, computer screen, etc.). Although these are related concepts, there are significant differences between these methods of communication. Written speech is presented in its entirety to the one who perceives it. In oral speech, words are pronounced one after another and the previous word can no longer be somehow perceived, it has already melted into the air. A written story also differs from an oral story in that the reader has the opportunity to return to one or another part of what is written, jump over several parts and immediately find out the denouement of the action. This gives some advantage to this type of speech. For example, if the person listening is not well versed in the topic being perceived, then it would be much better for him to read the relevant data several times in order to understand it more deeply. Writing is also very convenient for someone who puts their thoughts on paper. He can at any time correct what he doesn’t like, build a certain structure of the text, without repeating himself. It can also be designed more beautifully from an aesthetic point of view. But all this requires more effort from the author; he must think through the construction of each phrase, write it correctly, while presenting the idea as accurately as possible, without unnecessary “water”. You can conduct a simple experiment that will help you understand the difference that these types of speech bring in psychology. The scheme of this experiment is very simple. You need to take a voice recorder and record the speech of different people throughout the day. Then you need to write it down on paper. Every small mistake that is not perceived by ear will be simply terrifying on paper. Oral speech, in addition to the words themselves, uses many other means that help convey the full meaning of the spoken phrase. These include intonation, facial expressions and gestures. And in writing you need to express everything and not use the above means.

Active and passive speech

(speech of the speaker, writer) and
passive
(speech of the listener, reader).

A person’s speech in general and his individual speeches to those listening can be characterized by content, expressiveness and form.

A speaker in front of an audience must have a well-trained voice. The success of conveying content directed not only to the mind, but also to the feelings of the listeners, largely depends on this. It is impossible to convey the full depth of the content, to influence the audience both emotionally and aesthetically, if the voice is hoarse, hoarse and monotonous. In addition, a hoarse speaker causes listeners an irresistible need to clear their throat by coughing. Speaking of cough. The audience's cough somehow prevented the lecturer from starting his speech. In response to his request to stop coughing, the audience responded: “What do you mean stop? The cough is uncontrollable.” “Imagine - we are in control,” the lecturer answered and told about the Narodnaya Volya member N.A. Morozov, who, having found himself in the Shlisselburg fortress with a focus of tuberculosis in the lungs and knowing that coughing accelerates the painful process, by an effort of will ordered himself not to cough. When he was released 30 years later, the doctors were amazed: not a trace of tuberculosis remained. “By the way,” the lecturer finished, “pay attention: during the time I was talking, not one of you coughed” [203].

Speech should be balanced in pace. Haste, usually caused by the speaker’s timidity, creates the impression that the speaker is “getting off.” Sluggish speech is also ineffective, as it causes indifference to the topic of the speech. Reading a lecture very slowly leads to a weakening of perception; pauses that occur between words impose additional semantic load on each word; words acquire an unreasonably greater emotional and substantive significance, which complicates perception [32].

The understandability of the speech language depends on many factors: vocabulary, length of sentences, degree of syntactic complexity of speech, its saturation with abstract expressions, foreign and special terms. It is very important to use words correctly. The inconsistency of the word used with its generally accepted meaning or stylistic norms causes negative emotions in listeners, which can negate the purpose of the speech. Overly pompous expressions make people laugh, trivial ones irritate, and incorrectly used words cause ridicule and irony. The outstanding Russian lawyer and orator A.F. Koni, who knew well the value of the accuracy of constructing a phrase, wrote: “It is worth rearranging the words in the popular expression “blood and milk” and saying “milk with blood” to see the meaning of a separate word put in its place "[143, p. 89].

It is necessary to pay attention to the vocabulary of speech. Linguistically, judgments must be formulated in such a way as to correspond to the stock of knowledge of the listeners and, to some extent, to the nature of their expectations - social attitudes. An example of the flexible following of the changing situation in France by writing can be found in E. V. Tarle, who provides an observation of the specific selection of words in the Parisian press to describe Napoleon’s progress from the moment of his landing in Juan Bay until his entry into Paris (the Hundred Days period). The first publication: “The Corsican monster landed in the Bay of Juan”, the second - “The cannibal goes to Grasse”, the third - “The usurper entered Grenoble”, the fourth - “Bonaparte took Lyon”, the fifth - “Napoleon is approaching Fontainebleau”, the sixth - “ His Imperial Majesty is expected today in his faithful Paris." This entire literary gamut was extracted from the same newspapers, published under the same editorial staff for several days: situations changed and, along with them, words [321, p. 351].

In order for listeners to trust the speaker, his language must be to a certain extent close to the language of the audience, otherwise alienation arises. It should be borne in mind that, as N.G. Chernyshevsky noted, the formula for the feeling of group belonging becomes the statement “a person who speaks our language is our person.” The modern Russian literary language is developing rapidly. Experienced teachers are people who learned to speak and gained an understanding of the language norm 40 -50 years ago. They retain ideas about this norm to this day. Young people are mastering a language that has already changed, and they are forming a different idea of ​​the speech norm. Hence a number of psychological difficulties: “older” generations treat the speech norms of young people with misunderstanding and often with indignation, and young people strive to defend their speech independence at any cost. It’s unlikely that a mature person will say “to the lantern”, “to give a damn”, but even a young man will not use the expressions “if you please”, “don’t worry.” From this we can draw some conclusions: it is necessary to refresh speech with individual figurative elements of modern language and, perhaps, even student slang, without, of course, bringing this process to the point of absurdity - to the language of Ellochka the cannibal. It is very important to remember that the distribution functions of word meanings may not be the same for you and your listeners. They won’t understand what you think is funny, but when you talk about serious things, they may laugh. Taking these points into account is essential for the success of lecturing and teaching work.

It is necessary to pay attention to the fact that the abundance of parasitic words (“so to speak,” “means,” “well,” etc.) has a repulsive effect on listeners, and the speech is clogged with them especially often when the lecturer is worried. The emotional tension of the speaker specifically distorts his speech; “garbage” appears in it, such as the words “this”, “some”, “this one”, “here”, “means” and pauses with fillers such as “uh-uh” . The lecturer’s strong anxiety can make his speech overly categorical, increasing the number of words with a clear positive and negative orientation (“very”, “perfectly”, “wonderful”), increasing repetition of words and a tendency to use stereotypes and terms [106].

The language of the speech should be as simple as possible. One should not think that the complexity and scientific nature of speech contribute to its understanding and gaining the authority of the lecturer among listeners. Some lecturers unnecessarily use overly complex language to express very simple ideas. The manner of presenting obviously simple material in a complex manner sometimes reveals a desire to create a certain distance between oneself and the interlocutor, which worsens contact. The idea that complex scientific problems cannot be discussed vividly and simply is completely unfounded. The famous physicist Heisenberg wrote: “For a physicist, the possibility of description in ordinary language is the criterion of what degree of understanding has been achieved in the relevant field” [155, p. 48]. Of course, you need to be aware that simplicity of presentation requires not only a lot of work on the form, but also in-depth knowledge of the subject.

Is it acceptable to use cliches and stereotypes in speech? Living together and cooperating between people shapes their common thinking patterns. Linguistic stereotypes in the form of normative figures of speech also correspond to mental cliches. Sometimes it is advisable to use stereotypes, since some of them have great effective force, which remains even when the conditions under which specific cliches were developed have changed, for example, “the call of the battle trumpet.” Many people believe that it is better to do without cliches, but cliches save perception by allowing you to quickly review the material for a generalized assessment of its significance.

Keep it short. Even ancient rhetoricians warned against long phrases, since they were bad for the audience’s ears and the speaker’s breathing. Cicero [351] argued that the greatest virtue of an orator is not only to say what is necessary, but also not to say what is not necessary. How much better is Caesar’s famous saying “I came, I saw, I conquered” than “First I came, then I saw and then I conquered”!

It is advisable to be more precise; the physicist Dirac spoke precisely and demanded accuracy from others. One day, after finishing his message, he turned to the audience: “Any questions?” “I don’t understand how you got this expression,” said one of those present. “This is a statement, not a question,” said Dirac, “are there any questions?”

It is necessary to express yourself not only precisely, but also figuratively. Here is an example from the book of the hypnologist Boule [46]. A person under hypnosis was told: “You ate fatty foods.” Then the processes in the gallbladder were experimentally studied, but no results similar to the picture of real saturation with fatty foods were found. Then they changed the formula of suggestion: “You see on the table in front of you a lot of delicious, nutritious, fatty dishes - scrambled eggs with lard, sausage, butter, ham with mustard, pork with horseradish. You start eating by choosing what you like...” X-rays of the stomach and gall bladder showed a picture similar to that which occurs after real saturation with such food.

The more specific the speech, the brighter the visual ideas, and in vain, in the pursuit of scientism, the imagery of speech is eradicated. Thus, the newspaper wrote about how the director of the popular science film “Be Clean Air and Water” handed it over to the customer. The announcer's text began with the words: “Scientists formulate this problem simply: either people will make there is less smoke in the air, or smoke will make there are fewer people on Earth.” Two respectable customer specialists saw sedition in this and corrected the text as follows: “Scientists formulate this problem simply: either people will ensure sufficient purification of emissions into the atmosphere and water bodies, or the fauna and flora will be subject to destruction.” And it became boring.

The poetry of speech contributes to its perception. For example, the architect F. O. Shekhtel addressed his listeners with the following words: “There is hardly a fairy tale more magical than the fairy tale about three sisters: Architecture, Painting and Sculpture. Since our world has existed, we have never ceased to be fascinated by this constant fairy tale, in which Music, Poetry and other muses participate no less...” [77, p. 191]. The listeners remembered this for the rest of their lives.

It is advisable to use direct addresses more often in speech. This technique helps to activate the thinking of listeners, since they are thereby directly involved in solving the problems presented. The beginning of Cicero’s speech [351] against Catiline, from which many generations of orators learned, sounded like this: “How long will you, Catiline, abuse our patience? How long will you continue to mock us in your rage?” Expressions like “We’ll try to solve this issue together with you”, “Now let’s approach the same issue from the other side...”, “Let’s look at this problem from a different point of view”, “What do we know about this matter?”, “So what?” we see?" invite the listener to actively interact with the lecturer. Use personal pronouns and colloquial abbreviations.

Kinetic speech

At a time when people had not yet learned to speak, kinetic speech was the only means of communication. But now we have preserved only small pieces of such conversation. This is the emotional accompaniment of language, namely gestures. They add expressiveness to everything said and help the speaker set the audience in the right mood. But even in our time, there is a large group of people who use kinetic speech as their main one. These are people who have problems with the hearing and speech apparatus, that is, deaf and mute. They are divided into those who were born with the condition and those who lost the ability to hear and speak due to an accident or illness. But they all speak sign language, and this is the norm for them. This speech is more developed than that of ancient man, and the sign system is more advanced.

Inner speech

The conscious activity of any person is based on thinking, which, in turn, relates to inner speech. Animals also have the rudiments of thinking and consciousness, but it is inner speech that allows a person to have unprecedented intelligence and abilities that are a mystery to animals. As mentioned above, a person repeats every word he hears in his head, that is, it reverberates. And this concept is very closely related to inner speech, because it can instantly turn into it. A person’s dialogue with himself is actually inner speech. He can prove and inspire something to himself, convince him of something, support and encourage him no worse than those around him.

PsyAndNeuro.ru

The function of speech that comes to mind first is communication, and from a biological point of view, speech is a communicative system characteristic of representatives of the Human species. On the one hand, the ability to communicate is ubiquitous in nature: nightingale songs, bee dances, the color of a chameleon and the smell of flowers contain information that is important to transmit and receive for the purposes of reproduction and maintaining life. This is also characteristic of human speech, but it permeates all human activity and goes far beyond the scope of a simple message - that is, a phylogenetically ancient principle has been developed in such a way in humans that it has acquired completely new features.

Our thinking cannot be imagined without language, and neuroimaging studies show that internal speech (which accompanies thinking) involves many of the same structures as “external” [1]. In animals, the situation is different: the nightingale does not think in the language of its songs, and for another nightingale they are little different from other “signals from the outside,” for example, sunrise. Animals appear to “understand” each other because they can respond predictably to a given signal, but to say so is to imbue animals with human characteristics. In fact, we are only talking about a response that is normal for a given individual to such a signal, which does not require training and is provided for by evolution.

It is interesting that this method of communication is preserved in humans along with language - this is the so-called non-verbal communication. According to the generally accepted theory of basic emotions, our true emotional state is conveyed through facial expressions, gestures and voice intonations. However, recently a point of view has emerged that presents our facial expressions as a selfish and manipulative technique, in the spirit of numerous examples from the animal world, when communication is used to deceive and lure a victim or partner [2].

The difference between speech and non-verbal communication can be kept in mind as an example by comparing human language and animal communication methods:

1. Communication, which ensures specific life processes, is the only purpose of signals in animals, but is far from the only function of speech in humans.
2. In other living organisms, learning, at a minimum, plays a lesser role in mastering the method of communication; it can be completely innate.
3. If learning does occur, it follows a different principle in animals.

Firstly

, there is a certain set of signals that must be mastered, since without them the individual simply will not survive. Redundancy here is unacceptable, since in the race of natural selection, the one who invested in hunting or searching for housing will win. In this regard, a person enjoys freedom: he never masters all the words of his native language, but, at the same time, he knows much more than is necessary to satisfy basic needs, since natural selection is no longer so strict on him.

Secondly,

The main method of learning in animals is imitation; they need to learn only one thing: accurate reproduction. In humans, especially in the early stages, imitation is also important, but later it becomes clear that it is more important to learn the principle and then use ready-made schemes to obtain many combinations. As linguist Svetlana Burlak says, a child does not memorize a language, but completes it.

1. Other representatives of the animal kingdom can also use sophisticated signaling systems, including those that vary from population to population, like human languages. But human languages ​​are characterized by particular complexity and internal structure. Linguist Charles Hockett gives a list of such distinctive properties, which together also give the definition of language [3]:

– semantics, that is, the correspondence between a certain object, a phenomenon of the surrounding world and an element of language that calls it a word;

– double division, that is, an internal structure in which a meaningful speech unit, on the one hand, can become a “brick” for the construction of larger meaningful units, and on the other, an elementary semantic unit can be divided only into elements that no longer have independent meaning .

– hierarchy is a similar principle, which means that speech units can be classified from elementary to more complex. In the system of signs - starting from the morpheme and ending with the text, in the system of oral speech - from the phoneme to the phonetic sentence.

– discreteness – a clear difference in the sound (or writing) of expressions that have different meanings, the absence of smooth, imperceptible transitions between them;

– openness, that is, the ability to create an unlimited number of messages from a limited number of structural units;

– cultural continuity – the impossibility of acquiring a language for the first time other than by communicating with its native speakers;

– mobility – the fundamental ability to talk not only about “here and now”, but to mentally “move” in time and space;

– evasiveness – the ability to construct meaningless and false expressions;

– reflexivity – the ability to use language to reason about oneself.

The differences are striking, and some scientists question whether human language can even be compared to and “derived” from other communication systems. For example, linguist Derek Bickerton argues that the communicative function of language is secondary, and its main task is to mediate thinking [4].

In search of the moment of the emergence of human speech, the humanities and natural sciences approach each other halfway from different ends and cannot meet in any way.

Linguists study the language of a child, situations when a new language is born (for example, pidgins and creoles), and also compare the languages ​​of the world, looking for elementary general principles. However, in all these cases they are dealing with an already formed system, an established principle, but there is no opportunity to see its emergence.

Biologists are faced with another problem: no matter what model they choose, language is still very far away, and fragmentary information collected on different animals does not provide an idea of ​​​​the origin of language. However, interesting data can be obtained when working with animals in several ways:

– studying species with developed communication systems that may be somewhat similar to humans; this includes songbirds, cetaceans or social insects.

– studying primates, the closest relatives of humans: how is their brain structured, so close in structure to ours, but not capable of speaking? What can apes learn, and what structures, homologous to humans, provide these abilities? what path did hominid evolution take, and how did the structures necessary for speech change along this path?

There is another problem that prevents linguists and biologists from working together productively: specialists in one field tend to underestimate the complexity of the other. Linguists do not always understand what a strict test by natural selection every anatomical and functional formation necessary for articulate speech must undergo. In turn, biologists ignore the so-called “paradox of continuity”: the obvious gap between the communicative abilities of primates and humans, while other changes occurred smoothly and quite understandably.

Several systems are involved in speech production.

Firstly, nervous; it not only coordinates all the necessary movements, but also somehow builds thinking and memory on the basis given by speech. This also includes analyzers with the help of which speech is perceived.

Secondly, part of the digestive system, namely the organs of the oral cavity, which are involved in articulation.

Thirdly, the respiratory system: all the muscles that provide inhalation and exhalation, the respiratory tract, and especially the larynx, which is necessary for phonation.

There are two ways to trace how adaptive adaptations were formed. Firstly, by comparing how the listed systems are structured and function in humans and in apes. As already mentioned, the disadvantage of this method is the significant difference in development and the inability to judge intermediate stages. Second, some evidence can be gleaned from preserved hominid remains. However, almost all organs of the listed systems consist of soft tissues and are not preserved, so their structure can be judged only indirectly, by various traces and imprints, and bone sizes.

Let's get acquainted with the data of paleoanthropology in order to understand at what point the currently known signs of adaptation to speech reproduction appeared [6,7].

The Human Evolutionary Tree (Quam, 2017)

1. Low position of the larynx.

This anatomical feature creates the opportunity for free movements of the tongue, both in the horizontal and vertical cavities, that is, for more clearly articulated speech. At the same time, it provides the opportunity to make lower sounds, and since they are usually made by larger individuals, this way you can mislead your opponents and appear larger than you really are. However, the low location of the larynx also creates a serious danger of choking: in most animals it is located higher precisely so that the respiratory and digestive systems do not overlap. That is, the adaptation created by lowering the larynx should outweigh this risk.

Researchers are divided on whether a low position of the larynx should be considered a sign of speech proficiency. Some say that speech alone is not enough for speech to create an advantage. The ability to produce abrupt screams does not equate to the risk of choking, which means that the main evolutionary purpose of lowering the larynx in hominids is to create the impression of a larger size of the speaker. This position, for example, is argued by William Fitch [5]. The opposite is stated, for example, by Svetlana Burlak [3]: for social animals that know and remember each other, such methods of deception are useless, that is, there must be other reasons for the lowering of the larynx.

The position of the larynx can only be approximately determined from the skeleton. Anthropologists focus on the value of the basicranial angle, but modern apes and humans have shown that the correlation between it and the height of the larynx is insufficient. However, it is known that in Australopithecines and Homo habilis the curvature of the base of the skull is approximately the same as in living primates, and for the first time it approaches the level of modern humans in Homo ergaster.

1. Hyoid bone

Scientists can see the hyoid bone of ancient hominids, unlike the larynx, with their own eyes, but it is often located far from the burial site or is completely lost. On the rare specimens discovered, one can find markings of varying degrees of severity, indicating the attachment of the muscles of the tongue and larynx, as well as depressions to which the air sacs characteristic of primates are adjacent.

Judging by the hyoid bone, Australopithecus afarensis

air bags were still present, this would interfere with the reproduction of precise, discrete sounds. Neanderthal and Homo antecessor (Atapuerca) are closer to modern humans in the structure of the hyoid bone.

1. Structure of the lower jaw

The chin protuberance is not an adaptation in itself, but serves as a sign of one. It is known that in the evolution of hominids the facial skull becomes lighter, including the reduction of the upper jaw. This applies to the lower one to a lesser extent, in particular, because the chin protuberance serves as the attachment point for many muscles involved in articulation. However, some relief of the lower jaw contributes to its greater mobility. A pronounced chin protuberance is present only in neoanthropes; in Neanderthals there is only a tendency towards its formation.

It is also interesting to study the relief of the inner surface of the lower jaw, where in humans there is a mental spine for attachment of the tendon of the genioglossus muscle, and in apes, on the contrary, there is a fossa, since the same muscle is attached by the fleshy part.

1. Breathing control and the thoracic spinal cord.

Also, speech production requires voluntary control of breathing, in particular the ability to control the intercostal muscles. These muscles are controlled by spinal neurons located in the thoracic spinal cord. It can be assumed that the spinal canal, which contains this region, would be expanded in individuals that had better control of the respiratory muscles. Indeed, it was discovered that in the Neanderthal Heidelberg man this canal is as wide as in modern man, but even in Homo antecessor it is narrower.

1. Changes in the hearing organ

Just as rare as the hyoid bone, the auditory ossicles are preserved from the organ of hearing. In addition, you can estimate the size of the auditory canal passing through the skull. The audiometric curve for fossil hominids is constructed using computer modeling.

We know that there is a difference in sensitivity to sound frequencies between chimpanzees and humans. In chimpanzees, sensitivity to a frequency of 1 kHz is maximum, but at 3 Hz it begins to decrease, and at 5 kHz it reaches a minimum. Humans are more sensitive to frequencies from 1 to 5 kHz, which correspond to human speech.

The modification from chimpanzee to human hearing apparently occurred in two stages. In early hominids ( A. africanus,
P. robustus),
the peak sensitivity occurs already at 1.5-3 kHz. In primates of the genus, compared with their predecessors, sensitivity specifically in this range is slightly reduced, but the general range of increased sensitivity expands to 1-5 kHz.

1. Skull change

Certain characteristics of the skull may indirectly indicate changes in the brain that are necessary for language acquisition.

– hypoglossal nerve and the diameter of its canal

For differentiated movements of the tongue, more extensive innervation is necessary, so there is a hypothesis that with the development of speech, the hypoglossal nerve becomes thicker and its canal wider, which can be directly measured on the fossil skull.

Some researchers argue that in representatives of the genus Homo this canal has an absolutely and relatively larger diameter than in australopithecines and apes. Opponents of this hypothesis show that the thickness of the canal in humans and chimpanzees varies within approximately the same limits.

– brain size and skull volume

By examining the skull, you can not only estimate its internal volume, but also judge the relief of the brain from the remaining impressions. The brain volume of a healthy modern person ranges from 700 to 2000 cm³, and there is no direct correlation between cognitive abilities (as well as the ability to speak) and brain size. However, it is a parameter that is relatively easy to track and has varied markedly across hominids.

Change in endocranial volume over time (Holloway, 2015)

In the first representatives of the genus Homo, brain volume increased sharply and reached values ​​normal for modern humans. However, then the opposite trend appeared: the volume of the brain decreased, which was accompanied by its structural restructuring, including an increase in relief. Types of restructuring that do not affect brain volume are currently given even greater importance in human evolution.

Types of reorganization without increasing brain size (Holloway, 2015)

– development of asymmetry [8]

In modern humans, the area of ​​the brain traditionally called Broca's area is asymmetrically enlarged, often in the left hemisphere. This feature also occurs in apes, but is rare. The method of determining an enlarged Broca's area from depressions on the skull also raises questions, however, such depressions are found in representatives of the genus Homo (H. rudolfensis, H. erectus, H. heidelbergensis, H. neanderthalensis) and are not found in Australopithecus.

Another sign of asymmetry is the so-called petalias, unevenness of the hemispheres, when one of the lobes is larger in volume and, possibly, passes through the midline, somewhat pushing aside the similar one on the other side. Such features in humans have been studied, for example, in a right-handed person, the left occipital and right frontal lobes, as a rule, are slightly larger than the collateral ones. For a long time it was believed that they are found only in humans and in evolution appeared in representatives of the genus Homo, but recently it has been shown that they are also found in other higher primates.

Paleontological finds cannot answer this question. At the moment, the “living” brain is available for research only at two points: the conditional beginning of the path, that is, using the example of our closest relatives, primates, and at the end of the path, in humans.

The story begins with the question: why primates? These are not the only social organisms on Earth; high cognitive abilities (along with developed communication systems) are observed in cetaceans and some species of birds. It is often said that everything in evolution is an unpredictable coincidence of a large number of factors. Let's try to list the factors that could contribute to the emergence of speech in primates [5, 9]:

– living conditions

Primates are social animals that need communication in one form or another, and as their activities become more complex, it would bring more and more benefits. In addition, the size of the group in which an individual belongs matters: living in large groups has been shown to be a challenge for the brain and contributes to its development. As an example, they cite the ability to assign primitive “names” to other individuals and exchange some information about them - it would facilitate cooperation in the group.

– working memory

It is traditionally believed that animals have very limited working memory capabilities: they do not retain sensory information for more than a few seconds, are easily interfered with, and do not exhibit the rehearsal mechanisms for visuospatial or phonological information that are constantly active in humans. All this is incompatible with full-fledged speech, since speech also consists of the manipulation of objects contained in memory. However, in primates (as well as corvids) individual actions are found that one would like to call planned: for example, one captive chimpanzee, despite obstacles from zoo staff, each time collected a pile of stones in advance to throw them at zoo visitors .

The structures responsible for maintaining working memory were originally discovered in stroke survivors. However, then experiments began to be carried out on primates, as having a nervous system as similar as possible to the human one. In addition, the monkeys performed well on simple tasks that required them to select a recently shown picture. It is on animals that it is possible to apply the most accurate methods associated with recording the activity of single neurons. In this way, it was shown that there is a small area that is active during passive perception of a stimulus (of any modality) and when it is retained “until demanded” - that is, it is probably important specifically for working memory. This region is coded Spt, from Sylvian, parietal, temporal. And it is well known to aphasiologists: in studies that tried to specify the area of ​​damage corresponding to the symptom complex of Broca’s aphasia, in all patients the areas of damage intersected precisely in this area.

– homologous structures

Having discovered that the prefrontal cortex plays a key function in working memory processes, scientists began to study it. Whereas previously it was believed that the only place where memory could be “stored” was in the sensory cortex, it is now possible to study memory as a principle. Initially, the work was carried out using the visual system as an example: it was shown that there are two different pathways connecting the visual cortex with different parts of the prefrontal cortex: one of them is associated with the processing of information about spatial characteristics, the other - about the characteristics of faces and objects (dorsal and ventral streams). It was this information that speech researchers turned to when homologues of Broca's and Wernicke's areas were discovered in primates and it was necessary to determine how the connection between them was formed.

Areas homologous to Broca's and Wernicke's areas are reduced in primates. What led to their development? Two areas homologous to Broca's area in primates receive information related to the perception of sound. Area 44, “sensory,” is along the ventral stream, or more precisely from the ventrolateral prefrontal area, where the ventral streams of visual and auditory information converge. Area 45, the “motor” area, receives information along the dorsal stream, including from area Spt, associated with the lower parts of the parietal lobe, which in humans is involved in the auditory aspect of working memory.

Based on this information, a hypothesis was put forward about the primary role of language: at some point, primates came in handy with the ability to name an object that was not currently present in the field of view, which requires certain characteristics of working memory. The development of Broca's area occurred due to the development of connections in several directions simultaneously. Firstly, with the anterior parts of the parietal lobe (via the ventral stream), where information about the appearance of the object (or individual) that needs to be named is processed. Secondly, with the lower parts of the parietal lobe, which made it possible to retain sounds in memory and correlate them with the actions of the articulatory apparatus. However, the arcuate fasciculus, the best known pathway between Broca's and Wernicke's areas, is not expressed in primates. It corresponds to a small bundle of fibers connecting area 45 and area Tpt, a putative homologue of Wernicke's area. Wernicke's area's own connections, for example, with the lower parts of the parietal cortex, are also poorly developed in primates.

– control over vocalization

Neural control mechanisms are organized into a three-level system. The first level is the so-called brain stem chassis. It includes a complex of brainstem nuclei that control movements of the jaws, lips and larynx (trigeminal, hyoid, vagus), as well as internal structures of the brainstem (for example, the reticular formation). The second level is the subcortical centers, among them the periaqueductal gray matter plays a special role. It appears that higher order control is not necessary for simple, reflexive vocalizations. The third level is the cortical systems. One of them is more primitive and is present in all mammals - this is the median cortical system, which includes the cingulate cortex and adjacent areas. It is involved in the volitional control of the reproduction and cessation of vocalization, including in humans, and its action concerns not only speech, but also such involuntary forms as, for example, laughter. However, from an evolutionary perspective, we are more interested in the lateral cortical system. In humans, it is directly connected with motor neurons of the trunk (although indirect also exists), and the destruction of cortical centers leads to aphasia. In other mammals, including monkeys, the connection between the cortex and the brainstem nuclei is indirect, and even anencephaly does not prevent innate vocalization.

– mirror neurons

So-called mirror neurons, which are involved in “translating” observed actions into the language of internal motor programs, are found in many areas associated with speech. For example, on the border with Wernicke's area, in the area of ​​the dorsal premotor or primary motor cortex. However, the clear participation of these neurons in speech activity was found only in humans; in monkeys it is limited to smacking and other movements of the facial muscles. Perhaps their importance increased in evolution. Neurons with such functions could play a significant role in simulating gestures and vocal signals, thus facilitating learning.

– functional lateralization

Monkeys show signs of both functional and anatomical lateralization, but to a lesser extent than humans. Moreover, the structures that are affected by lateralization often relate specifically to communication (temporal plate, connections of the homologue of Broca’s area). However, additional factors must have been present in evolution to enhance lateralization. One obvious manifestation of lateralization is the tendency to use the right hand for certain actions, often requiring training. In monkeys it is not as developed as in humans, but it appears when you need to build a simple device or throw something. Perhaps the ability to create tools, which developed in a number of hominids and required lateralization, pushed the left hemisphere, which was initially somewhat specialized for communication purposes, into dominance and contributed to its greater development.

Prepared by: Shishkovskaya T.I.

Sources:

1. Geva S. et al. The neural correlates of inner speech defined by voxel-based lesion–symptom mapping //Brain. – 2011. – T. 134. – No. 10. – pp. 3071-3082.
2. Crivelli C., Fridlund AJ Facial displays are tools for social influence //Trends in cognitive sciences. – 2020.
3. Svetlana Burlak, Origin of language: Facts, research, hypotheses
4. Bickerton D. Species and language. – 1990.
5. Fitch
   W. T.
   Evolution of language.
   M.: Languages ​​of Slavic Culture, 2013. 768 pp.
6. Burlak
   S.A.
   Time of appearance of sounding speech
   according to anthropological data // Bulletin of Moscow University. Episode 23: Anthropology. — 2012.
7. Quam RM et al. Evolution of Hearing and Language in Fossil Hominins //Primate Hearing and Communication. – Springer, Cham, 2017. – pp. 201-231.
8. The Oxford Handbook of Language Evolution, Tallerman and Gibson
9. Francisco Aboitiz – A Brain for Speech: A view from Evolutionary Neuroanatomy – Palgrave Macmillan UK 2017

Functions of speech

All types of speech in psychology have their own functions. A table of the functionality of each of them can more clearly reveal all their facets.

Thus, human speech has many forms, and each of them is simply irreplaceable for building proper communication.

Speech as the highest mental function

Thanks to speech, a person can absorb information from external sources. It is one of the main mental processes, since it allows you to actively build communication between people. With its help the following are implemented :

1. Communication with people around you in everyday life.
2. Upbringing. Adoption of existing rules and laws in society. The ability to learn morality from other people and develop personal values.
3. Cognition . The opportunity to study the history of the planet, understand the structure of the world through the natural sciences (biology, physics, chemistry).
4. Transfer of information and accumulated experience through centuries. The ability to record knowledge using speech on physical media (paper, audio, video).