Speech Production, Theories of

The 20th-century linguist Roman Jakobson urged that talkers speak in order to be heard so that they might be understood. How talkers manage to do this is the driving question for speech production theorists. Any potential explanation must address the following three issues: (1) the goals of speech production, (2) the control mechanisms of speech production, and (3) the relationship between speech production and perception. Different theories of speech production can be roughly classified according to their perspectives on these three issues, and all the three issues interact with each other: For instance, one’s perspective on the goals of speech production is partially dependent on one’s perspective on the relationship between speech production and perception. This entry provides an overview of the process, goals, and ...