1. PHYSIOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS OF SPEECH (MATERIAL TO DYSARTHRIA) 1.1. PHYSIOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS OF SPEECH At the very start, I should draw a clear distinction between the terms: “language” and “speech.” A l a n g u a g e is defined as a system of symbols (linguistic signs) and a set of combinatory rules for creating sentences out of those symbols. Each symbol, i.e. each word or phrase, has both form and meaning, and can therefore be used for conveying information. S p e e c h , on the other hand, refers to a specific act or acts of language use for the sake of conveying information. For a speech act to be received by an addressee, the form of a symbol has to be physically realized, i.e. as sound or as a graphic representation. Before a person speaks (performs a speech act), they entertain a thought, which, as a pre-verbal representation, is difficult to investigate. What can be studied is the verbal counterpart of a conceptual representation that appears at the verbalization stage. This stage starts with u t t e r a n c e p l a n n i n g , i.e. selecting words, constructing the sentence, adjusting the grammatical forms to syntactic requirements, which is then followed by u t t e r a n c e e xe c u t i o n , i.e. physically uttering the sentence. From the neurophysiological perspective, the execution phase involves finding the right kinesthetic engrams to pronounce single phones/speech sounds and combinations thereof, and then constructing grammatical forms of words and larger complexes, such as phrases, sentences, or texts. This process can be represented as follows: THOUGHT → UTTERANCE PLANNING → EXECUTION It is assumed that the different levels of language representation correspond to different types of brain activity necessary for their materialization in communicative acts. The phase of planning an utterance requires neural processes known as s p e e c h mo t o r p r o g r a mm i n g m e c h a n i s m s . The production phase is effectuated by s p e e c h e x e c u t i o n m e c h a n i s m s ,
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