A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics David Crystal

speech 445
clause or noun phrase contains a specified subject (a lexical, NP, pronominal
or trace, but not pro), no other (non-subject) constituent can be moved
out of that clause. An example violating this constraint is *Who did you buy
Mary’s picture of?
specifier (n.) (spec, Spec) A relation in the X-bar theory of phrase structure.
Specifiers are normally seen as combining with a single-bar category to form
the related double-bar category. For example, in John is a student, a is the
specifier of the noun, student, and in She is very happy, she is the specifier of
the adjective, happy. Spec/head agreement is agreement between the head of a
phrase and the element which occupies the specifier of that phrase.
spectrograph (n.) An instrument used in acoustic phonetics which provides
a visual representation of the acoustic features that constitute the sounds in an
utterance. The original sound spectrograph produced a three-dimensional visual
record, or spectrogram, of an utterance, in which time is displayed horizontally,
frequency vertically, and intensity by the relative blackness of the marks, on a
sheet of sensitized paper. Today, spectrographic information can be generated
electronically and displayed on a screen.
spectrum (n.) A term derived from the study of the physics of sound, and used
in acoustic phonetics, referring to the set of acoustic components which
identify a complex sound wave. A spectral analysis is a graph in which one axis
displays the frequency of each harmonic and the other displays amplitude.
Several devices are available to measure and display spectra, but the one most
commonly used in phonetics is the spectrograph.
speech (n.) For the most part, the term is used in linguistics in its everyday
sense, providing the subject with its primary data. There are two main interpretations
of these data, which are complementary rather than opposed. One
interpretation is from the viewpoint of phonetics: here, speech is seen as a
medium of transmission for language – the spoken medium or phonic substance
of language (as opposed to writing). It is in this context that the term
is used as part of the label for the many devices available in instrumental
phonetics, e.g. the speech stretcher (which presents a slowed but otherwise
undistorted recording of speech). Speech science is the study of all the factors
involved in the production, transmission and reception of speech; also called
speech sciences or speech and hearing science. As well as phonetics, the study
includes such subjects as anatomy, physiology, neurology and acoustics, as
applied to speech.
The other interpretation is from the viewpoint of linguistics, where spoken
language (performance, or parole) can be analysed in phonological,
grammatical and semantic, as well as phonetic terms. It is in this sense
that terms such as speech community are used, referring to any regionally or
socially definable human group identified by a shared linguistic system. The
term speech act, also, has a more abstract sense than its name suggests (see
separate entry); it is not in fact an ‘act of speaking’, but the activity which the
use of language performs or promotes in the listener (respectively, the