Syntax and Production
Publisher Summary This chapter reviews the syntax in language production. Syntax is an interface between meaning and sound. A word such as cat has a particular meaning, but the expressive power of language is enhanced immeasurably by the ability to create meanings compositionally by putting words together for example, the ability to say not a cat or that's my cat. Models of production instantiate this basic architecture fairly and transparently. The process of speaking begins with a message level representation that captures the idea that the speaker wishes to convey. This message becomes sound at the other end of the model at a stage called "phonological encoding." Linking the message and phonological levels are two stages of syntactic processing (or grammatical encoding as it is called in the model) one called "functional processing" and the other called "positional processing." The final component of syntactic processing takes place at the positional level that operates on the functional level representation. At this point, serial order is imposed on the utterance.