Speech events, language development, and the clinical situation

Abstract

Psychoanalysis brings about psychic change by the mediation of speech. This paper reflects upon the significance of the structure and developmental organisation of the speech event as a verbal and non‐verbal unit composed of semantically and prosodically encoded messages, interactions and emotional contact between partners. Spoken words communicate semantic meanings and the affects of a given speech event. Words carry personal emotional meanings which are inseparable from their referential significance. Such emotional meanings are very hard to articulate in words. They are conveyed by the ineffable but essential feelings present in their sound and pronunciation. Speech is an intentionally object‐related and emotionally engaging social activity resulting from a child having been spoken to early in life by an adult wanting to establish affective verbal contact. The early organisation and later transformation of the structure of the speech event carries private meanings for each person's listening and speaking stance. A refined understanding of the structural and emotional complexities of verbal communicative exchanges during analysis may enhance the analyst's ability to understand the patient'smanner of participation in the analytic process.

Key words:

• speech event
• language development
• clinical situation
• prosody
• affective contact
• phatic function
• subject communication
• pronunciation

Received 2002 May, 20

Received 2002 May, 20