Fowler Carol A
Department of Psychology, University of Connecticut, Haskins Laboratories.
Ecol Psychol. 2010 Oct 1;22(4):286-303. doi: 10.1080/10407413.2010.517115.
Language use has a public face that is as important to study as the private faces under intensive psycholinguistic study. In the domain of phonology, public use of speech must meet an interpersonal "parity" constraint if it is to serve to communicate. That is, spoken language forms must reliably be identified by listeners. To that end, language forms are embodied, at the lowest level of description, as phonetic gestures of the vocal tract that lawfully structure informational media such as air and light. Over time, under the parity constraint, sound inventories emerge over communicative exchanges that have the property of sufficient identifiability.Communicative activities involve more than vocal tract actions. Talkers gesture and use facial expressions and eye gaze to communicate. Listeners embody their language understandings, exhibiting dispositions to behave in ways related to language understanding. Moreover, linguistic interchanges are embedded in the larger context of language use. Talkers recruit the environment in their communicative activities, for example, in using deictic points. Moreover, in using language as a "coordination device," interlocutors mutually entrain.
语言使用具有公众性一面，这与在深入的心理语言学研究中探讨的私密性一面同样值得研究。在音系学领域，言语的公众使用若要用于交流，就必须满足人际“对等”约束。也就是说，口语形式必须能被听众可靠地识别。为此，在最低描述层面，语言形式体现为声道的语音姿态，这些姿态合法地构建了诸如空气和光线等信息媒介。随着时间推移，在对等约束之下，在具有足够可识别性的交际交流中会出现语音库。交际活动所涉及的不仅仅是声道动作。说话者会用手势、面部表情和眼神交流来传达信息。听众体现他们对语言的理解，表现出与语言理解相关的行为倾向。此外，语言交流嵌入在更大的语言使用语境之中。说话者在其交际活动中会借助环境，例如使用指示点。而且，在将语言用作“协调手段”时，对话者会相互呼应。
