performance (n.)

A term used in LINGUISTIC theory, and especially in GENERATIVE GRAMMAR, to refer to LANGUAGE seen as a set of specific UTTERANCES produced by NATIVE-SPEAKERS, as encountered in a CORPUS; analogous to the SAUSSUREAN concept of PAROLE. It is opposed, in this sense, to the idealized conception of language known as COMPETENCE. The utterances of performance will contain features irrelevant to the abstract RULE system, such as hesitations and unfinished structures, arising from the various psychological and social difficulties acting upon the speaker (e.g. lapses of memory), or from biological limitations (such as PAUSES being introduced through the need to breathe). These features must be discounted in a grammar of the language, which deals with the systematic process of SENTENCE CONSTRUCTION. The possible implication of this view, that performance features are unimportant, came to be strongly criticized, and the factors which contribute to performance grammars are now of considerable interest, especially in PSYCHOLINGUISTICS.

A technique used in PHONETICS whereby aspiring practitioners of the subject are trained to control the use of their VOCAL ORGANS so as to be able to produce the whole range of human speech sounds. The correlative technique of discriminating and identifying sounds is known as EAR-TRAINING.