speech repertoire n
the languages or language varieties that a person knows and uses within
his or her speech community in everyday communication. A particular
group of speakers may use not just one language or language variety to
communicate with one another but several, each appropriate for certain
areas of everyday activity (see domain). The speech repertoire of a French
Canadian in Montreal could include Standard Canadian French, Colloquial
Canadian French and English (perhaps in more than one variety).
see also diglossia, verbal repertoire
speech rhythm n
rhythm in speech is created by the contracting and relaxing of chest muscles
(pulses). This causes changes in air pressure. There are two different pat-
terns of pulses:
a a more regular type of contraction with regular rises in air pressure (chest
pulses)
b less frequent but stronger contractions with more sudden rises in air
pressure (stress pulses).
The way these two systems operate together in any one language is said to
cause different types of speech rhythm.
see also stress-timed rhythm, syllable-timed rhythm
speech segmentation n
the process of identifying the boundaries between words, syllables, or
phonemes in spoken language.
speech situation n
see speech event
speech styles n
alternative ways of speaking within a community, often ranging from more
colloquial to more formal. Usually, the range of styles available to a person
varies according to his or her own background and the type of speech
community. The choice of a particular style has social implications. For
example, choosing a formal style in a casual context may sound funny and
using a very colloquial style in a formal context, such as in a sermon at a
funeral service, may offend. Generally, a native speaker knows when a
certain speech style is or is not appropriate (see appropriateness).
Two types of rules which are connected with speech styles are co-
occurrence rules and alternation rules. Co-occurrence rules determine
which linguistic unit may follow or precede, that is, “co-occur with”,
another unit or units. For example:
speech repertoire