The term linguistic performance was used by Noam Chomsky in 1960 to describe “the actual use of language in concrete situations”.[1] It is used to describe both the production, sometimes called parole, as well as the comprehension of language.[2] Performance is defined in opposition to “competence“; the latter describes the mental knowledge that a speaker or listener has of language.[3]
Part of the motivation for the distinction between performance and competence comes from speech errors: despite having a perfect understanding of the correct forms, a speaker of a language may unintentionally produce incorrect forms. This is because performance occurs in real situations, and so is subject to many non-linguistic influences. For example, distractions or memory limitations can affect lexical retrieval (Chomsky 1965:3), and give rise to errors in both production and perception.[4] Such non-linguistic factors are completely independent of the actual knowledge of language,[5] and establish that speakers’ knowledge of language (their competence) is distinct from their actual use of language (their performance).[6]
. . . Linguistic performance . . .
Published in 1916, Ferdinand de Saussure‘s Course in General Linguistics describes language as “a system of signs that express ideas”.[7] de Saussure describes two components of language: langue and parole. Langue consists of the structural relations that define a language, which includes grammar, syntax and phonology. Parole is the physical manifestation of signs; in particular the concrete manifestation of langue as speech or writing. While langue can be viewed strictly as a system of rules, it is not an absolute system such that parole must utterly conform to langue.[10] Drawing an analogy to chess, de Saussure compares langue to the rules of chess that define how the game should be played, and parole to the individual choices of a player given the possible moves allowed within the system of rules.[7]
. . . Linguistic performance . . .