3. Units of speech 1. Units of the process of generation and perception of speech statements

In the psychology of speech [146], units of speech are distinguished as units of realization of the speech process (that is, the process of generating and perceiving speech utterances). In modern psycholinguistics, a number of speech units considered below are interpreted in some scientific concepts as psycholinguistic units (119, 133, 315, etc.); their definition and characterization in this manual is given separately.

The main units of speech as a set of ways to implement speech activity are syllable, word and speech utterance (119, 187, 225, etc.).

The syllable is defined in the psychology and psychophysiology of speech as a minimal speech-speaking unit. The process of external realization of oral speech (speaking) is carried out through the production (pronouncing) of a syllable, in a typical variant - a stable combination of two or three sounds, or one - a vowel sound. The syllable as a unit of the external phase of speech activity is realized through a complex of articulation movements (based on the corresponding articulation modes and speech-movement “positions”). In the psychophysiology of speech and speech therapy, a syllable as a speech-speaking unit is defined by the term "articuloma". Accordingly, the practical implementation of the basic units of the language - words and sentences (as a whole speech utterance) is carried out on the basis of producing separate syllables - sound combinations (that is, combinations of phonemes that make up these units). It is very important for professionals involved in shaping the speech of children (or restoring speech-speaking abilities in adults) to take into account this pattern in the implementation of the process of speaking in external terms. It should be emphasized that the interpretation of the process of producing oral speech as a consistent pronunciation of individual sounds that is quite common among "non-specialists" has no basis. From the psychophysiological point of view, the main criterion for distinguishing a syllable as the minimum unit of speech production (in oral speech) is the presence in the word, as a larger speech unit, the so-called. interverbal pauses - pauses-microsets between separate syllables - articulums.

In the psychophysiology of speech and speech therapy, appropriate classifications of syllables have been developed - by the number of sound (phonemic) elements that make up a syllable, as well as by the type of sound combinations. Since this classification (“typology of syllables”) is well known to every correctional teacher, we will not dwell on its consideration. At the same time, we draw the attention of specialists involved in the formation of children's speech to the methodological aspects of identifying a syllable as a unit of speech. Since it is the syllable that is the minimum speech-speaking unit, the formation of syllable-speaking skills in children can be considered as one of the independent and very important tasks of “speech work”. The formation of the correct sound pronunciation is directly connected with the solution of this problem. In this regard, it should be mentioned one of the methodological approaches to the conduct of such work, put forward at one time by the well-known expert in the field of Russian speech therapy, BM. Grinshpunom. He recommended calling and priming sounds in children with TNR immediately as part of a syllable, bypassing the stage of evoking and “automating” the sound in “isolated” utterance (140, etc.). In many cases, in speech therapy practice, such an approach is indeed legitimate and expedient, since the ability to correctly produce sound (phonemes) outside the syllable and the word has almost no meaning for mastering the “technical” skills of speaking activity. From the above, the following methodical conclusion can be made: the formation of the initial speech-speaking skills (i.e., the successful implementation of the “first stage” of work on the formation of the skills of correct sound pronunciation) can be spoken only when the child has learned to pronounce correctly the sounds in all syllables of all types after how well-pronounced skills are fully formed. [147]

As an independent unit of speech, a syllable is realized only in speech activity of speaking; in other types of taxiway he does not act in such a "function". In the process of listening, a syllable acts not as a unit of speech, but as a component of an “intermediate” analysis; the unit of the speech perception process is the whole word (this process is carried out “word for word” - on the basis of extracting the whole word from the perceived sound stream). [148] At the same time, it is impossible not to take into account that the syllable also “appears” in the process of speech perception, since the syllable analysis of each word extracted from the sound flow, as well as the analysis of intraverbal pauses, is a necessary component of this process. In writing, in the processes of reading and writing, the syllable appears as a unit of speech production only “on a temporary basis” - at the stage of the formation of the skills of reading and writing. (An example would be the stage of “per-word” reading.) In these types of taxiways, the minimum unit for the implementation of the speech process is also a whole word.

The word is the basic and universal unit of speech production and perception. The word as a unit of speech (compare it with its main functions as a unit of language) appears in its two main manifestations - as a pronunciation unit and as a “semantic” (semantic) unit. In its first capacity, the word is a holistic speech-speaking unit, a stable sound complex, produced in speech through a set of speech movements - articulum. Interverbal (inter-word) pauses in the simultaneous audio stream - the material form of the external realization of speech expressions in oral speech and “spaces” [149] in written language, which correspond to motor pauses, testify to the legitimacy of the word as a pronunciation unit of speech. The word in its main - semantic - function (as a sign - a carrier of meaning) can be considered as the minimum sense unit of speech. In some cases, a word (for example, as a one-word sentence, as an extremely concise replica in a dialogue) can act as a “seme” - the minimal unit of speech semantics, although most often it is a “seme-forming” element: [150] a logically organized combination of words as the units of the “meaning of speech”, it forms the “this”. The word, being the main and universal unit of the language, simultaneously acts as a unit of speech, which allows us to consider it (the word) as the main connecting element that defines the dialectical unity of the phenomena of language and speech. Operating the meaning of a word, using it in speech activity in different senses - meanings is an intellectual action, the very meaning of a word is considered in psychology of speech and psycholinguistics as one of the categories of thinking. All this determines the immense importance of the fact that a child masters the word as the most important instrument of speech and intellectual activity, since this is the main condition for the full-scale cognitive development of a person.

The selection of the word as a speech-speaking unit in the methodological aspect is also important. In this regard, the decisive stage of speech work on the formation of correct pronunciation in children with speech impairments is, firstly, the correct pronunciation of each sound worked out in the whole word (and in different positions - at the beginning, in the middle, at the end of the word, in “Sounds), and secondly, the child’s mastery of the skills to correctly reproduce words of all types of syllabic structure. [151] (This is fully applicable to work with adults in cases of restoration of partially or completely lost skills of normative sound pronunciation, for example, motor aphasia or dysarthria.) Motor motor speech motor skills of normative pronunciation of words provide a complete realization of the word as a semantic and informative element of speech. Formation of skills of correct reproduction of the sound syllable structure of words should therefore be allocated in a separate section of speech speech therapy work.

It should be emphasized that the word (as opposed to a syllable) acts as a unit for the realization of the speech process in all types of speech activity - speaking, listening, reading and writing, that is, as a universal structural unit of speech. According to some psychological and psycholinguistic concepts of internal speech (BG Ananyev, TN N. Ushakova, and others), the word is also the main structural component of the realization of the verbal and cognitive process.

The third, also basic, unit of speech is a speech utterance. Speech utterance is defined in psychology of speech and psycholinguistics as an independent communicative unit, as a speech message completed by the content and intonation , characterized by a certain (compositional or grammatical) structure (61, 126). A characteristic of the utterance (as a speech action in the framework of speech activity) is given in another section of this manual; [152] we also point out its main functions as units of speech.

Speech statement, as well as the word, acts as a speech-speaking unit, and as a "semantic unit".

At the same time, a separate statement in a typical variant corresponds to one “seme” (the minimum unit of semantic content of speech), but it can express the content of a separate “microtheme” (the minimal component of the general theme of the expanded speech utterance, finished semantically and structurally). Expanded speech utterance (РРВ) is characterized by “semantic polyphony”, since a topic or subtopic that “РРВ” “reveals” is a relatively developed, fairly detailed and (to some extent or another) detailed display in the speech of its subject - any fragment of the surrounding of reality. The presentation of the subject of speech in a speech statement is carried out by means of its structural-semantic components — the system of denotations and predicates, the characteristics of which were given earlier. [153] Recall that the denotations perform the function of denoting and verbally summarizing the “significant objects” of the displayed objective situation, and the predicates are the function of transmitting the most significant connections and relations between objects (events, phenomena) in speech.

The main function of a speech utterance is the deliberate transfer of some mental content, i.e. a speech message. Thus, the main communicative function of speech is realized by means of RS. Intentional transmission of information, the exchange of speech messages between people is possible only through speech statements, through their “production” in external speech. Once again, we note that individual speech statements are the main means of implementing dialogic communication, and deployed RTs - implement (in the typical version) oral monologue and written speech. Speech communication is carried out based on the use of not separate disparate words or phrases; The basic unit of communication is precisely the detailed speech utterances.

Being a unit of speech communication, the speech statement in the RD is always correlated with the displayed objective situation; it is “socially” and psychologically (“emotively” and “expressive”) oriented towards participants of speech communication. In the normative embodiment of the RD, the utterance as a unit of speech takes into account the communicative situation: the position of the speaker is set out in it taking into account the knowledge and possible reaction of the interlocutor.

Speech-abiding skills of the external realization of speech statements do not represent a simple "summation" of the skills of producing syllables and words; they include a number of important "additional" components. These include the skills of pronouncing phrases of various types, the skills of adequate intonational formulation of the utterance (based on its communicative task and the “actual” / semantic / articulation of a sentence or paragraph of text), including the skills of “semantic pausing”, “accent selection” of words and phrases. This also includes the skills of the tempo-rhythmic organization of speech utterance. Since the above-mentioned speech actions include the operations of the “semantic plan”, they are, in many cases, carried out by the RD subject consciously, on the basis of the implementation of intellectual actions and operations. Such complex speech-speaking skills are not formed in children “spontaneously”, without sufficient and appropriately organized (on the part of adults) speech practice. The formation of these complex speech skills in children with speech disorders (as well as their recovery in adults, for example, in aphasia) always requires special (often long enough) training.

General speech skills of making speech statements include a set of language skills that ensure compliance with the “language rules” of constructing RV (in a given language), compliance of the linguistic design of the RV with the language norm. In the process of "speech ontogenesis," these skills of operating with signs of the language should also be developed in students.

Based on the foregoing, it is obvious that the formation of students' skills in constructing speech statements (first, separate RTs, then expanded ones) should be attributed to the most important sections of speech speech therapy work. Due to the fact that the main objective of this area of ​​work is the practical mastering of children by the main means of verbal communication and “social interaction”, this section is highlighted in the general system of corrective speech therapy as the leading direction. In accordance with modern methodological requirements, speech therapy work with children and adults with THP should begin with the formation of skills of individual speech statements and end with the improvement of speech communication skills based on the use of different types of expanded messages. At the same time, the work on the development of phrasal and then expanded coherent speech (the work “on the proposal” and the formation of skills for analyzing and composing the text) is continuous, being the “cross-cutting” direction of all speech work.

The method of work on the formation of cohesive speech skills in preschool and school speech therapy is generally well developed and continues to be improved by the efforts of leading experts in this field (TB Filicheva, SN N. Shakhovskaya, VK Vorobeva, TV Tumanova, TA Tkachenko, VP Glukhov, etc.). At the same time, specialists in the formation of speech always need to rely in their practical activities on the knowledge of the psychological and psycholinguistic patterns of human speech activity and the characteristics of its formation in ontogenesis. At the same time, it is necessary to take into account the main methodological principle of organizing “speech work”: the speech therapy impact should always be aimed at developing students' skills of coherent speech statements, regardless of the formation of which components of the language (speech) system is the content of remedial work at this stage.