The Sounds of Speech
Identifying Words
When we speak we say words and when spoken to we hear words. In normal discourse, however, we do not separate---the---words---by---short---pauses, but rather run one word into the next. Yet in spite of this we still hear utterances as composed of discrete words. Why should that be so?
A clue is provided by the fact that in order for us to hear the words, the utterance must be in a language we know; in utterances in a language we do not know we do not hear the words. Similarly, when we hear a string of nonsense syllables, we cannot tell whether it is composed of one or of several words. Knowledge of language is therefore crucial.
In a way this is not surprising. Everybody who has studied a foreign language knows that learning the words is a major part of mastering the language. Knowing the words is not sufficient, but it surely is necessary. When we learn a word we store in our memory information that allows us both to say the word and to recognize it when said by someone else. And the reason we do not hear words when spoken to in a foreign language is that we have not learned them, we do not have them in our linguistic memory, i.e., in the part of our memory dedicated to language.
Speaking