Whereas seventeenth-century authors of works on speech and the education of deaf people, such as John Bulwer, Gérauld de Cordemoy, William Holder, and Charles and Pierre Perrault, had used the word to describe the physiological act of speaking-the use of the voice and the organs of the mouth to perform speech-Rousseau and Maupertuis added a wider epistemological sense. In doing so, they endowed the word with a wider significance than previous men of letters. In the mid-eighteenth century, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Étienne Bonnot de Condillac, and Pierre Louis Moreau de Maupertuis, to name only three of the most famous philosophers of the time, invoked “articulation” in relation to the historical development of civilization. Strikingly, they pivot on debates that first emerged in the second half of the eighteenth century in France, building upon a mechanistic understanding of speech and the body and leading to debate about the source of the expressive power of language.
The cochlear implant, as well as peripheral interfaces, cannot avoid entering into a long history of associations and connotations around a mechanistic understanding of physiology. Throughout modern history, the prevalent hearing culture has hypostatized the role of hearing and speech in the development of intelligence and societal progress. Footnote 8 If cochlear implants as well as human–computer interfaces based on lip movements continue to meet with so much resistance from parts of the Deaf community and beyond, this reflects constructions of speech that have been at the core of conceptions of humankind for over three centuries. Experiencing the cochlear implant as a threat to Deaf culture, along with the various physical pains associated with its use, has led some to undergo surgery to have their implants withdrawn. Footnote 7 For this community, cochlear implants are an obvious declaration about human norms.
MICAL PRONUNCIATION FULL
Footnote 6 A wide range of people, especially in the medical and scientific field, see the cochlear implant as the solution to promoting access to language building, which is based upon the view that mastering speech is necessary for a full integration into society.įor many sign language users, by contrast, the cochlear implant is a device that has merely perpetuated the illusion that access to speech benefits deaf people. It is offered with the claim that cochlear implants provide the best support for learning speech and should be provided as early as possible.
On the other hand, cochlear implant surgery is now a common practice on newborns diagnosed with deafness. Footnote 5 According to its inventors, this three-dimensional audiovisual talking head not only provides a crucial tool to facilitate communication between hearing and deaf people it also allows telephone communication as well. Footnote 4 A group of engineers working in Paris VIII, for example, has created “Greta,” a human–computer interface that produces facial expressions, lip movements, and cued speech (codified gestural signs based on hand shape and hand position that complement speech communication in order to facilitate it).
Footnote 3 Other recent developments have attempted to adapt so-called “talking heads” for communication with deaf people. Footnote 2 Engineers, psychologists, and neurologists have shared their expertise about machine learning and image and signal processing. On the one hand, the invention of speaking robots and interfaces has fostered debates about what constitutes natural communication, credibility, verisimilitude, and expressivity. Over the last several decades, the importance given to speech as a mode of communication has drastically increased. Julien Offray de La Mettrie, L'homme machine Footnote Let us not confine the resources of Nature they are infinite, especially when supported by great art.
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