Key Concepts in TGG

1.2. Performance

Performance, on the other hand, refers to the realisation of this code in actual situations. It is the person's concrete use of language in producing and understanding sentences. Performance represents only a small sample of the utterances of language and is influenced by external non-linguistic factors such as lapses of memory, lapses of attention, malfunctioning of the mechanisms related to speech, stress, fatigue, noisy surroundings and so on. As a result, a speaker may produce false starts, changes of plan in mid-course, restructuring of what the speaker wants to say, etc.

Performance is the use of the code in actual situations.  Competence is a linguistic code (set of rules)

For Chomsky, “performance” is not the object of study in linguistics (but psychology). For Saussure, however, “parole” does provide the data from which statements about “langue” can be made.