This document discusses the difference between linguistic competence and performance. Competence refers to a person's underlying knowledge of language rules, while performance is how that knowledge is applied in real-time speech and writing. Competence involves knowledge of morphology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics, while performance can be impacted by psychological factors like memory limitations or fatigue. Mistakes in performance do not necessarily mean a lack of competence if the speaker recognizes the mistakes. The relationship between competence and performance illustrates that knowing a language's rules differs from real-world application of that knowledge.

1. COMPETENCE versus
PERFORMANCE

2. DEFINITION
COMPETENCE PERFORMANCE
• Person’s knowledge of
his language.
• The system rules which
a language user has
mastered so that it would
be possible for that user
to produce and
understand an infinite
number of sentences
and recognise
grammatical mistakes
and ambiguities
A term used in the
linguistic theory of
transformational generative
grammar, refer to language
is seen as a set of specific
utterances produced by
native speaker.

3. LINGUISTIC COMPETENCE
• What you know about the language.
• Concern:
o-communicative competence-grammatical
sociolinguist, discourse and strategic.
opragmatic competence-how language is used.
oliterary competence- ability to handle special
properties of literary language.

4. Linguistic competence of
native language
 One can recognize
whether the word
belongs to his native
language.
e.g. Slip
slib
sbill
*
*

5. Li ngui st i c compet ence of
nat i ve l anguage
•He also can know the
morphology, such as
prefix, suffix.
e.g. Re-cuddle
nonderiveable
en-rich-ment*

6. Li ngui st i c compet ence of
nat i ve l anguage
• He can distinguish sentence
and non-sentences.
e.g. The accident was seen by
thousands.
The accident was looked by
thousands.
*

7. Li ngui st i c compet ence of nat i ve
l anguage
• He can distinguish some sentences
which have the same structure but
the different meanings.
e.g. The cow was found by the
stream.
The cow was found by the
farmer.

8. Li ngui st i c compet ence of
nat i ve l anguage
• He can know some sentences
with different structure, but
related meanings.
e.g. The police examined the
bullet.
The bullet was examined by
the police.

9.  Produced by the influence of the
environment.
 Produced by both influence of the
environment and human inherent ability.
 It is the human inherent ability- Language
Acquisition Device.
The dispute about the derivation of
linguistic competence

10. LINGUISTIC PERFORMANCE
• How you actually use your knowledge about
language.
• Performance is the actual use of the language
by individuals in speech and writing.
• Utterances might :
o Contain features irrelevant to the abstract
rule systems-hesitation, unfinished structure.
o Involve psychological and social difficulties-
lapses of memory, limitations, tiredness

11. o Descr i be t he psychol ogi cal
process i nvol ved i n usi ng t he
l i ngui st i c compet ence i n al l ways
t hat t he speaker can act ual l y use
i t .
o Psychol ogi cal pr ocess:
 Pr oduci ng ut t er ances
 Under st andi ng t hem
 Maki ng j udgment s about t hem
 Acqui r i ng t he abi l i t y t o do al l
t hese

12. Rel at i onshi p bet ween
Compet ence and Perf ormance
• I f you make grammat i cal
mi st akes, but you know t hey are
mi st akes, t hen your perf ormance
does not mat ch your compet ence.
• I f you don't know t hey are
mi st akes, t hen your compet ence
mat ches your perf ormance, and
you ar e pr obabl y not nat i ve

13. Evi dent l y, t her e i s a di f f er ence
bet ween havi ng t he knowl edge
necessary t o produce sent ences of a
l anguage, and appl yi ng t hi s
knowl edge. I t i s a di f f er ence bet ween
what you know, whi ch i s your
l i ngui st i c compet ence, and how you
use t hi s knowl edge i n act ual speech
pr oduct i on and compr ehensi on, whi ch
i s your l i ngui st i c per f or mance.

14. When we speak, we usual l y wi sh t o convey
some message. At some st age i n t he act of
pr oduci ng speech, we must organi ze our
t hought s i nt o st ri ngs of words. Somet i mes
t he message i s gar bl ed. We may st ammer,
or pause, or produce sl i ps of t he t ongue.
We may even sound l i ke t he baby, who
i l l ust r at es t he di f f er ence bet ween
l i ngui st i c knowl edge and t he way we use
t hat knowl edge i n per f or mance.

15. THANK YOU