SPEECH ERRORS AS EVIDENCE FOR THE LEXICAL STORAGE IN THE MENTALLEXICON

BY

SYDNEY ZVIDZAI

R115604D

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

AREA OF INVESTIGATION

OBJECTIVES

JUSTIFICATION

METHODOLOGY

LITERATURE REVIEW

DATA PRESANTATION

DATA ANALYSIS

CONCLUSION

1. INTRODUCTION

The issue that is going t be addressed by this project is aboutspeech errors and how they afford us a glimpse of how words arestored and processed in the mental lexicon. These speech errorsare a deviation from a speaker’s current phonological grammaticalintent. Language processing in the human mind is complicated andit cannot be objectively observed. Access into its working isvery limited to an extent that both Psychologists and Linguistknow relatively little than they would like to know. The onlypossible window through which we can see this is by analyzing

speech errors. In figuring how the brain works, one standard lineof inquiry is o see how it fails. This was first taken up bySigmund Freud (1901). However most of his theories have beenrejected because his hypothesis only accounted for a few errorsand left the rest unaccounted for. Using the speech errors itwould be argued that the retrieval of words in the mind is donestarting from the phonological level. Speech errors would supportthe view that words are not retrieved as chunks but as individualentities. They show also het word retrieval in speech productionis modular. The research is going to be done at my home inDzivarasekwa. The research would also be done in Alexandra Parkwhere there are university students living together and it wouldfocus on errors that occurs in English language. The researchwould focus these students and family members since I spend moretime with them conversing in English. These speech errors wouldbe taken from people without speech disorders. They would alsosupport the view that words are stored in two forms that ismeaning and form and for a better speech production these fieldswould have o be united. They would also show the issue ofperformance and competence. In competence the speaker would havea correct grammar in his head but in performance he wouldretrieve these words wrongly or fail to pronounce them in thecorrect way.

2. AREA OFINVESTIGATION

I have decided to use these two places Dzivarasekwa and Alexandrabecause of their diversity. In the first place I choseDzivarasekwa because of its multi faceted linguistic structure.Dzivarasekwa is an area in the high density suburbs that can besaid to one of the melting pots in the city. It is home to people

of various nationalities. There are people from the SouthernAfrica including Zambia, Mozambique, and Malawi. So for thesepeople to commutate effectively they have to chose a neutrallanguage and in most case the educated ones use English becauseof its neutrality and also for prestigious reasons. This willmake it possible for one to analysed speech errors in such anarea with rich linguistic evidence. The second pace I used isAlexandra Park because here one would find students from theUniversity of Zimbabwe living in overcrowded rooms where heatedacademic arguments and debates in English would be conducedwithout cease. This would results in speech errors that areinsightful in showing how the lexicon stores language and howthat language is accessed during speech production. This areaalso eliminated the possibility of speech errors in English beingmade because one was incompetent in English. The students weresome of the brightest and promising individual who spoke Englishso flawless.

3. OBJECTIVES

To look at how speech errors are caused.

To look at different speech errors

To look at speech errors made by students in Alexandra Park

and ordinary citizens in Dzivarasekwa

To use speech errors to come up with a suitable model that

shows how language is stored in the mental lexicon

To use models to see how these speech errors provide

insight into some of the proposed speech production and

mental lexicon

3. JUSTIFICATION

The research would tries to show that speech errors is another

window through which we can gain access to the processes that

are involved in language storage and processing. The goal will

to pursue that speech errors are a reach source of data that

can be analysed to support r reject models of language

processing. It would also try to show how the realization of

certain words in a wrong way does not mean that the words in

the mental lexicon are jumbled. On the other way, some errors

like semantic errors would show that words may be stored in

classes and the super-ordinates may be quickly retrieved than

other members. These speech errors studied shows also that

words and their meanings are stored differently and they would

be linked during production. The area of study were selected

because they tried to address the problem of illiteracy are

controversial as people in Dzivarasekwa were controversial as

their English left a lot to desire. This area was unique in

that it included people from various nationalities. Alexandra

Park was selected because most of the students used English in

an almost day to day basis. I was also able to assess them

without bias as some of them were open and did not get worked

up when we noticed and repeated a speech error. They were more

cooperative and they were the best candidates available for

one to study.

(4) METHODOLOGY

(4, 1) Data Gathering.

The method that I used to gather data was gathered in Alexandra

Park and Dzivarasekwa. The method that was used was observation.

I collected naturally occurring data and put it down in a

notebook at the time of occurrence. I tried to be as accurate as

possible when it came to recording what had already been said in

case of a speech error that involved errors at sentence level.

The method was not expensive and it could not strain me

financially. It also gave me room to work in a flexible way.

However it had some shortcomings that not all errors were written

down. Sometimes those errors occurred at a place where it was

awkward to write. People were more likely to be hostile when they

saw me writing their errors. Some were eager to manhandle me as

they viewed this process of me recording their speech errors as

rude and intrusive. I would write the speech errors later but in

most case I would forget about them. Family members were more

likely to point me as a sell-out when I recorded their speech

errors for my research. The methodology was data driven in the

sense that I used the data that I gathered to understand how

language was stored in the mental lexicon. The data supported or

refuted theories of lexical storage.

(4, 2) LITERATURE REVIEW

A speech error has been defined by Laver and Boomer (1973) as an

involuntary deviation fro the speaker’s current grammatical

phonological or lexical intent. The fact that it is involuntary

makes it an error of performance rather than about competence.

The speaker might have a correct grammatical representation in

his mind but fail to produce it. It can be said that speech

errors are performance errors. Some scholars like Meringer and

Meyer (1895) realized their Linguistic importance and did an

extensive collection of them. They can be done by normal people

and they have proved useful in studies of lexical storage. They

may be caused by various reasons that include drunkenness,

tiredness, stress, excitement or nervousness.

Speech errors fall under two broad categories that are assemblage

errors and selection errors. Assemblage errors are those errors

that occur when the words are retrieved correctly from the mental

lexicon but produced in the wrong way. These assemblage errors

are anticipation, transposition and perseveration.

Anticipation errors are those errors are errors that occurs when

a speaker prematurely anticipates and get material before it is

needed. It is saying a letter that should have been realized

later, sooner. This can be shown when a student at University of

Zimbabwe said ‘can you give me that leading list’. The sound ‘l’

in list was anticipated sooner before the ‘r’ sound was realised.

There phenomenon may have been caused by the act that ‘l’ and ‘r’

share the same phonological features and both are articulated at

the same area. They are also laterals. Smith (2010) says that

anticipation errors are more common than other errors. This error

shows that word in the lexicon can be arranged on their

phonological classes.

The second assemblage error is transposition. These are errors

that occurs when speakers swaps two sounds of words. This can be

shown when a man in Dzivarasekwa who was involved in a heated

argument with his workmate said ‘don’t fake your shinger at me’.

Fromkin (1973) say that transposition errors are both errors of

anticipation and perseveration. What happens is the switch in the

linear ordering of the sound intended. The third error is

perseveration. This is when a sound that was produced earlier in

an utterance persisted and got used again. This can be shown by

the error ‘that was our pre-phone flan’. This error was made

because the fricative sound in phone remained longer that it was

used in plan.

The second category of speech errors is selection errors.

Selection errors occur when the word was wrongly retrieved in the

lexicon. It is different from assemblage errors inn the sense

that in assemblage errors the words are retrieved correctly but

realized in the wrong way whilst under selection error the error

begins in the word or sound retrieval itself. There three major

types of selection errors. The first selection error is blend.

Blends occur when two words are compounded. This may be because

the speaker was thinking of both words at the same time. They

occur when two words are fighting for selection in the lexicon.

These competitors succeed together and hence are realized at the

same time as blends. This may be shown when my father was trying

to defend himself from my mother and said, ‘listen woman, you

misunderestimated me’.

The second types of selection error are substitutions. The

substituted words are mostly linked to each other by similarity

of form or meaning. The third type is semantic error. These

semantically mediated lexical slip occurs when one word replaces

another one that is related in meaning. The Bowling Green State

University website cites that this is more common in parents

where they may exchange the names of their children.

These kinds of mistakes show us how we arrange speech in our

heads. If we want to retrieve a word the letters have to be

arranged in the right order. The letters that are needed to form

a word are activated in the brain. Some of the activated letters

remain activated and that makes it possible for one to have a

perseveration error. Some of them may be activated too early

making anticipation errors or their positions may be switched.

All the words that a speaker knows are stored in the mental

lexicon. These words constitute the speaker’s tacit knowledge of

his or her knowledge. Handke (1995) says that the mental lexicon

is the central module of a language processing system,

interacting with other components of the language processor and

containing detailed information concerning the words to be

produced and comprehended. The objectives of the research are to

try o see how words are stored I the mental lexicon. There are

several models that try to show how the mental lexicon sores its

entries. There are the list models and the network models. The

list model tries to liken the mental lexicon as a word list where

words are arranged like in a dictionary. However the way we make

speech errors shows that some words are not even related. It

would also mean that lexical assess would run down a list of

words for one to be picked. This would slow down communication

but the fast way that words are assessed in the lexicon shows

that words are not in a list but likely a network.

Collins and Quillian (1969) came up with Hierarchical model that

postulated that concepts are organized into a hierarchy where

taxonomic and attributive relations are represented. In this

organization words are given ranks and those words that are super

ordinates are easier to retrieve that lesser members of the

class. This is supported by the fact that people sometimes make

speech errors when they refer quickly can retrieve the word meat

to mean pork or chicken. Words in the mental lexicon can be said

to be stored according to frequency of use. A teacher is likely

to replace a box of cookies with a box of chalk. In his mental

lexicon he words that he uses frequently are easily accessible

than those hat he does not frequently use. The mind consists of

the working memory or temporary memory and the subconscious where

words that are not active are put. The words that are in the

working memory are retrieved from the subconscious and names that

are frequently used are activated quicker.

Some speech errors shows hat words are stored by semantic

similarity. Words that are similar like banana, apple, and orange

can be exchanged in speech and result in semantic errors. These

semantic errors show that words that share the same meaning are

closely related. Yet this becomes problematic in errors where the

relationship is not that close. It can be said that in

circumstances where one swaps oranges for bananas it must because

bananas would be a better example of a fruits than oranges.

Two other models of lexical access which also help in showing the

storage of language in the mental lexicon are the serial model

and the parallel model. The serial model postulates that when we

want to access word we go through a list of the available words.

Words that are regularly used are easier o retrieve than those

that are rarely used. What would be apparent in the mode is that

words are not stored semantically but because of frequency. An

example of such models is Forster’s (1979) where words are

arranged in bins according to form and modality. Those words that

are higher in the bin are the most frequent. There are

circumstances called girlfriend slips where you can address your

girlfriend with the name of her predecessor. Sigmund (1901) say

this is caused by suppressed thoughts that you are not yet over

that girl. But sometimes it is not so. It may be because their

names may be common names like Martha and Mary.

The other model is the spreading activation model (Collins and

Loftus 1975) and it supports the idea that the mental lexicon is

a network but the organization is not hierarchical but rather is

a web of interconnected nodes which, depending on the target word

become activated during retrieval. Distance between nodes is

determined by structural characteristics for instance taxonomic

relations and typicality.

DATA PRESENTATION

1 Error: Cable of contents

Target: Table of contents

2 Error: Wide walk

Target: Sidewalk

3 Error: A stitch in nine saves nine

Target: A stitch in time saves nine

4 Error: A leading list

Target: A reading list

5 Error: Leave no stone unstorned

Target: Leave no stone unturned

6 Error: Glean and pright

Target: Clean and bright

7 Error: Lunder and thightining

Target: Thunder and lightning

8 Error: I went to baby’s Betsy shower today

Target: I went to Betsy’s baby shower today

9 Error: Fewtable

Target: Few notable

10 Error: Misundestimated me

Target: Misunderstood and underestimated me

11 Error: Soap studs

Target: soap suds

12 Error: Alshoshare

Target: Also share

13 Error: I picked up some gutter pups

Target: I picked some butter cups

14 Error: I am ravished

Target: I am ravished and famished

15 Error: The Pamire pampaign

Target: The Pamire campaign

16 Error: That was our pre-phone flan

Target: That was our pre-phone plan

17 Error: Don’t fake your shinger at me

Target: Don’t shake your finger at me

18 Error: Honey, did you put the milk back in the oven

Target: Honey, did you put the milk back in the fridge

DATA ANALYSIS

Speech errors show us how language is arranged in the mental

lexicon. They act as a window in the processes that are

involved in the mind. Using the assemblage errors and

selection errors I am going to deduce how speech is stored in

the human mind. The Ohio website aptly puts it when it says

that the best way to look at how the mind works is to look at

how it fails. Some of these errors are a roadmap in the

storage of the words in the mental lexicon. The data of

English speakers in Harare would be the basis for me to deduce

the workings of the human mind.

Errors (1), (2), (3) show that words are arranged inn a

network form I the mind. This means that words are linked and

once they are activated the connection spreads outwards

activating other words. The error ‘cable of contents’ resulted

when both the initial ‘t’ in table and the initial ‘c’ in

content were activated at the same time. The anticipated

letter become active and was realized before its time. The

network model makes it sensible as‘t’ and ‘c’ are quite

distinct from each other save the fact that they are dental

sounds. This may also show that words may also be stored

according to their phonological properties.

Sounds (5), (6) and (7) are perseveration and they are caused

by the fact that they remain activated even when they have

been used. This shows that the words that have been

activated are interconnected with each other. If they were

serial, they would not have perseveration as the words would

be dropped quickly after they are used. Using this data from

speech errors, it can be said hat words are stored in the

mental lexicon according to their phonological structure and

are activated in a network process that spreads to other

words with similar phonological properties.

Sounds (9) and (10) are blends. Blends are also a subcategory of

lexical selection errors. In blends more than one word is

considered during speech production but the two intended items

fuse together. Since blend errors involves two words fighting for

selection, the spread activation model also helps in showing how

language is stored in the sense that words of the same category

are activated at the same time as in the example (9) and (10)

where the first part of the first word attaches to the last part

of the other word were combined to come up with one word. Hence

this shows that words of the same initials are all activated as

depicted in example (9) and (10). This feature also shows the

creative side of language as it can be able to come up with new

compounded words like brunch, consisting of breakfast and lunch

or smog, a combination between smoke and fog. This shows that

there are no strict boundaries between words in the mental

lexicon. Words can freely fraternize with each other and hence be

incorporated into one word like the error made by my father

whilst addressing his wife (10). Sounds (13) and (14) are called

malapropisms. These are semantic errors that occur when a word is

wrongly picked in the lexicon instead of the other one. The

speaker may do it with the belief that everything is alright and

may even fail to notice the slip. It is only after fierce

arguments that some students in Alexandra Park finally agreed

that they had made those errors. The others in Dzivarasekwa

became aggressive when the slip was indicated. Therefore when we

fail to pinpoint the right word we end up saying the wrong word

because these words might have been stored n the same area.

Aitchison (1998) observes that semantically this suggests that

similar meaning words are linked together in the mind. The

spreading activation model would activate them because they are

in the same environment. This error is also shown by the way

parents swap names of their children. Opposites are also expected

substitutes when it comes to speech errors. Freud says that when

such a slip is made, it shows the repressed thoughts in the

subconscious. These slips have been called the Freudian slips but

their occurrence is limited to a feel circumstances and this has

resulted in his points being rejected.

Example (15), (16) and (17) are further examples of the

phonological arrangement in the mental lexicon. There are also

substitution errors and they suggest that in the mental lexicon

the words that are similar in sounds which have the same outline

shape or characteristics are stored next to each other or closely

linked. Example (13) and (18) suggests that people look for words

with certain characteristics and in this example fridge and oven

share the same characteristics in that they are kitchen gadgets

but the oven is much more used than the fridge. Thus, the search

model also show how language is stored in the mental lexicon in

the sense that words are arranged in bins according to form and

accordance so words that are higher in the bin are the frequently

used ones hence one may select the best prototype than the other.

The oven is more associated with the kitchen than the fridge.

CONCLUSION

The research tried to show how speech errors helped one to see

the way words were stored in the mental lexicon from the

phonological level to the semantic level. Though some of speech

errors were not analysed extensively due to lack of clears data,

those that were highlighted supported the models put forward by

linguists that tried to show how words were arranged in the

mental lexicon. The data was assessed as objective as possible

but there research was bound to have some subjective views.

Although the research did not account for all the things that

encompass speech errors, it managed to bring insight into some

mechanisms behind speech production.

REFERENCE LIST

1. Aitchison, Jean (1987). Words in the Mind: An Introduction

to the Mental Lexicon. Oxford: Blackwell.

2. Chomsky, Noam (1986). Knowledge of Language. Its Nature,

Origin, and Use. New York: Praeger.

3. Chomsky, Noam (1988). Language and Problems of Knowledge.

The Managua Lectures. Cambridge, Mass: MIT.

4. Emmorey, Karen D. / Fromkin, Victoria A. (1988). The mental

lexicon. In Newmeyer, F.

5. Fromkin, Victoria (ed.) (1973). Speech Errors as Linguistic

Evidence. The Hague: Mouton.

6. www.ling.ohio-state.edu . 03/04/14

7. www.academia.edu . 03/04/14