Practice question · Multiple choice
Linguists distinguish underlying competence from observable performance. What does this separation imply for how we evaluate slips of the tongue?
Hints
- Does fumbling a word mean your internalised grammar suddenly vanished?
- What distinct factors interfere when turning mental structure into physical speech?
Show the answer
A. They reflect external execution noise rather than broken rules
Why
Mistaking production slips for grammar flaws confuses execution with internal knowledge. Performance errors do not alter structural rules, nor do they prove speech is anarchic. Real-time lapses simply expose physiological and processing constraints.
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