Reconsideration of the action-theory perspective on speech motor control

Abstract

The late 1970s and 1980s saw the development of the ‘action-theory’ approach to modelling speech production processes. This offered an alternative to production models based on traditional translation theory, which, it was claimed, was better able to account for the results of current research in motor control and the physiology of movement. Despite the fact that action theory has significant implications for our understanding of speech production processes it has had only limited impact in clinical linguistics. In this paper we reconsider the action-theory approach in relation to developing models of normal speech motor control and pathological language. While most of our current models of speech production and our understanding of language breakdown are based on a traditional translation theory approach, we would hold that the action-theory alternative provides a useful framework within which to re-examine certain processes of normal linguistic behaviour and its pathological breakdown.