Speech Science: Technique, Concept, Theory

The purpose of this paper is to outline a history and a possible future of speech science as a discipline. Two major and sometimes opposing views of speech science are discussed. One view is inspired by Stetson's work, and holds that study of speech movements is most likely to reveal the essentials of speech motor control. The other view regards the speech acoustic signal as part of the control mechanism; in this view, movements and the signals produced by them are intertwined as part of the control mechanism. The importance of understanding these two views of speech science is in the application of speech science skills to clinical disorders of speech motor control. The paper uses motor speech disorders as an example of how the two views can be joined empirically and theoretically for a maximally productive application of speech science to an understanding of disorders of speech motor control.