PSY 3136 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Vocal Tract, Vocal Folds, Neurolinguistics

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSY 3136
• Professor: Chris Fennell

Document Summary

Lecture 4 ( chapter 2 ) - physical nature of language. Three major parts: lungs: provide the fuel, vocal folds: within the larynx, articulators : tongue, palate, lips, cheeks, alveolar ridge, teeth, etc. Face, hands (we can also use other components, ex. The capacity to produce speech depends on the structure and the functioning of the human vocal tract. Speech is produced when air from the lungs exits the larynx and is filtered by the vocal tract above the larynx. We can change the pitch of the sound we produce by tightening or loosening the vocal folds in the larynx. We can further change the sound that comes out of our mouths by changing the shape of the vocal tract above the larynx (the supralaryngeal vocal tract). Although the structures in our vocal tract serve other purposes biting, chewing, swallowing, inhaling these structures have features that seem better suited for speaking than for their other functions.