Vocate: Characteristics of speech, Luria

General Characteristics--Spoken Language
1.
Spoken language is a higher mental process, and embodies all the characteristics of such processes:
a.
It has sociocultural origins.
b.
It is a complex functional system built on a functional base of the more elementary sensory systems of the brain, and is capable of controlling such systems.
c.
It arises from a material base that is a "complex functional system of conjointly working cortical zones . . ." ( Luria, 1966b, p. 35).
d.
It evolves through a pattern of developmental stages rather than existing as a static, innate quality of the brain.
e.
It has a mediated structure in that it incorporates auxiliary stimuli ("stimuli artificially introduced into the situation") ( Vygotsky, 1966, p. 24), which are usually produced by the individual himself.
f.
It is distinguished by the fact that the speech system is always a factor in its formation.
g.
It is originally both conscious and voluntary in nature rather than being passive and merely reflexive.


1.
Spoken language is the most readily influenced of all the higher mental processes.
2.
Spoken language can be either excitatory or inhibitory as a stimulus. Developmentally, the excitatory or impulsive aspect precedes the inhibitory or semantic aspect of spoken language.
3.
Functionally, spoken language has three dimensions:
a.
It is a form of social communication.
b.
It is a tool for intellectual activity.
c.
It is a method of organizing or regulating mental processes.
4.
Spoken language's process can be subdivided into two processes: impressive speech or decoding, and expressive speech or encoding.
5.
Spoken language has both a paradigmatic (vertical) and a syntagmatic (horizontal) structure.
6.
Spoken language's semantic component includes both "sense" and "meaning."
7.
Spoken language is sympractic in nature.
As previously noted, the term spoken language is synonymous with Luria's term speech, and is used to reflect the inclusion of psychological activities as well as the code of language in this theoretical unit. Other terminology used above in outlining the general characteristics of spoken language is clarified during discussions of these characteristics in the ensuing chapters concerning various topical areas of Luria's work.