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Introduction

Automatic speech (also known as embolalia) refers to the verbalization of different words or phrases that occur without the conscious effort of the individual. This type of speech component often serves as verbal filler during the middle of a presentation or conversation. It consists of words not directly under the control of a person's conscious mind, and are spoken without thought. Such speech includes false starts, hesitations, repetitions that accompany words that speakers plan and utter, coherent sentences, and filler words (such as "like", "er" and "uhm").

The word embolalia, came from the Greek word embolos which means 'something thrown in', from the word emballo- meaning 'to throw in' + -lalia meaning 'speech, chattering and babbling; abnormal or disordered form of speech'

Terminology

Other terms that have been used to refer to automatic speech include, "embolalia", "hesistant speech", "formulaic speech", etc.

Automatic speech has sparked research in many different fields since a long time ago. Modern linguists led by Leonard Bloomfield in 1933 call these "hesitation forms" -- the sounds of stammering (uh), stuttering (um, um), throat-clearing (ahem!), stalling (well, um, that is), interjected when the speaker is groping for words or at a loss for the next thought.

French psychiatrist Jules Séglas, on the other hand, referred to the term embolalia, as "the regular addition of prefixes or suffixes to words", and mentioned that the behavior is sometimes used by normal individuals to demonstrate to their interlocutor that they are paying attention to the conversation.

Harry Levin and Irene Silverman called automatic speech "vocal segregates" in their 1965 paper on hesitation phenomena and found out from their experiments on children that these segregates seem to be less voluntary hesitation phenomena and may be signs of uncontrolled emotionality under stress.

The Irish poet William Butler Yeats argued for automatic speech experiments with his wife, which provided him with symbols for his poetry as well as literary theories.

Characteristics

There are several different types of automatic speech.

The first type of automatic speech is relatively universal, often transcending cross-linguistic and cultural differences. Simple fillers, such as “uhm,” “uh,” or “er”, are used by many people in a variety of different context and discourse settings. For the most part, these types of fillers are considered innocuous, and are often overlooked by listeners, as long as the fillers are not utilized so often that they overshadow the rest of the conversation.

There are other forms of automatic speech that are ingrained within specific cultures, and at times they can be considered a distinctive characteristic of the group of people who share a particular religion, or live in a specific geographical region. Along with accents, automatic speech of this type is sometimes considered colorful and somewhat entertaining. Writers often make use of this type of speech to give the characters in their literary writings additional personality, seeking to bestow upon them unique characteristics.

Morphology

Filled pauses

There are basically three distinct forms for filled pauses: (i) an elongated central vowel only; (ii) a nasal murmur only; and (iii) a central vowel followed by a nasal murmur. Although a schwa-like quality [ə:]), appears to be the most commonly used, some speakers consistently using the neutral vowel [ɨ:] instead, and others both vowels in the same sentence, depending on the quality of the previous word last vowel. Filled pauses vocalizations may be built around central vowels and speakers may differ in their preferences, but that they do not appear to behave as other words in the language. The lengthening of words ending in a coronal fricative, for instance, could be obtained by prolonging the entire rhyme and/or the fricative only. Most of the time, however, the neutral vowel [ɨ:] is appended to achieve the desired effect.

Prolonged pauses

Similarly to filled pauses, single occurrences of prolonged pauses occur between stretches of fluent speech, may be preceded and followed by silent pauses, as they most often occur on function words with a CV or V structure. Even though they are not always central, the vowels of such syllables, may be as long as the ones observed for filled pauses.

Syntax

Semantics

Function

Discourse Comprehension

In many instances of automatic speech, the fillers that are used demonstrate to listeners that the speaker has not completed his or her speech yet, and that more discourse is impending.

Although automatic speech can function as an indicator that there is further discourse continuation, there are cases where some people develop an unconscious dependence on these filler words.Speech therapy can often help an individual realign their command of the language to eradicate one's excessive use of automatic speech, via training one to utilize more efficient use of other verbal and discourse strategies. As the individual begins to acquire more confidence and rely less on the usage of filler words, the predisposition toward producing automatic speech will gradually decline.

Another purpose of automatic speech is to dissociate oneself slightly from the harsh reality of what is to follow. It is the articulation of a slight grimace.

Also, by the use of a beat of time filled with a meaningless interjection, uncommitted people who are "into distancing" make a little space between themselves and their words, as if that lessens their impact.

On the other hand, automatic speech can sometimes be present due to other factors, such as illnesses.

Neurological Basis

Medical Cases

Aphasia

Many patients who suffer from aphasia retain the ability to produce automatic speech, which often consists of conversational placeholders like "um" and "er." The automatic speech of aphasics can include swear words - in some cases, patients are unable to create words or sentences, but they are able to swear. Also, the ability to pronounce other words can change and evolve during the process of recovery, while pronunciation and use of swear words remain unchanged.

Patients who are affected by transcortical sensory aphasia, a rare form of aphasia, have been found to exhibit automatic speech that is characterised by “lengthy chunks of memorized material”.

Apraxia

Apraxia can also occur in conjunction with dysarthria (muscle weakness affecting speech production) or aphasia (language difficulties related to neurological damage).”

One of the articulatory characteristics of apraxia found in adults includes speech behavior that "exhibits fewer errors with automatic speech than volitional speech”. Childhood apraxia of speech has also been found to have more effect on volitional speech than on automatic speech.

The characteristics of acquired apraxia include difficulties in imitating speech sounds, imitating no-speech movements, such as sticking out the tongue, groping for sounds, and in severe cases, the inability to produce any sounds, inconsistent errors and a slow rate of speech. However, patients who suffer from acquired apraxia may retain the ability to produce automatic speech, such as “thank you” or “how are you?”.Apraxia can also occur in conjunction with dysarthria, an illness which inflicts muscle weakness affecting speech production), or aphasia, which causes language difficulties related to neurological damage.

Developmental verbal dyspraxia

Developmental verbal dyspraxia is a chronic neurological disorder that affects the voluntary movements of speech. A child affected by Developmental verbal dyspraxia may be able to say certain words or phrases spontaneously, constituting a form of automatic speech, but may be unable to repeat them on request, thus constituting the inability to formulate a certain form of voluntary speech.

See also

• Aphasia
• Automatic writing
• Dysarthria
• Developmental coordination disorder
• Glossolalia
• Jane Roberts

External links

• Interview with authorial-Self
• Connecting The Dots: Words Matter...Especially in Sales (The Dotted Line)

Category:Linguistics