English medium education is frequently called the acrolect. The basilect is
the sub-variety used by those with rather low levels of education and the
mesolects are the sub-varieties in between. Naturally there are no clear-cut
boundaries between these “lects”.
Educated speakers of a more established ESL variety may use the acrolect
or an upper mesolect in more formal situations and something close to the
basilect in a more informal context.
see also post creole continuumspeech defect n
alsospeech disorder
any abnormality in the production of speech which interferes with commu-
nication, such asaphasia, or stuttering.
speech errors n
faults made by speakers during the production of sounds, words, and
sentences. Both native speakers and non-native speakers of a language
make unintended mistakes when speaking. Some of the commonest speech
errors include:
a anticipation error: when a sound or word is brought forward in a
sentence and used before it is needed. For example:
I’ll put your cat in the cupboardinstead of I’ll put your hat in the cupboard
b perseveration error: when a sound or word which has already been
uttered reappears. For example:
the president of Pranceinstead of the president of France
c reversal error, also spoonerism: when the position of sounds, syllables,
or words is reversed. For example:
let’s have chish and 3 psinstead let’s have 3 sh and chips
Speech errors have been studied by psycholinguists in order to find out how
people store language items in long-term memory and how they select items
from memory when speaking.
see also memory
speech event n
a particular instance when people exchange speech, e.g. an exchange of
greetings, an enquiry, a conversation. For example:
Child: Mum, where’s my red sweater?
Mother: Bottom drawer in your bedroom.
Child: Right, I’ll have a look.
Speech events are governed by rules and norms for the use of speech, which
may be different in different communities. The structure of speech events
varies considerably according to the genrethey belong to.
speech defect