| Pragmatics | a cognitive and communicative idea is formed | tertiary association cortices | involves a tiger |
| Conceptualization | idea is analyzed in terms of constitutive notions | | notion of ‘tiger’ is activated |
| Lexical selection | notions are mapped onto items of the mental lexicon | [various regions of left hemisphere] | the word tiger is selected |
| Morphological adaptation | lexeme is specified as a word form according to its function in the sentence | Broca's area | (nothing in this example) |
| Symbolization | combination of morphs is mapped onto a phonological representation | Wernicke's area | /tajgər/ |
| Phonetics | phonological representation is converted into a plan for the execution of phonatory and articulatory movements2 | Broca's area + premotor cortex + basal ganglia3 | [tʰɑɪ•gɚ] |
| Articulatory representation | phonetic plan is temporarily kept in working memory | prefrontal cortex | |
| Motor commands | sequentially, each component of the plan is sent to speech apparatus | primary motor cortex | |
| Phonation and articulation | speech apparatus executes motor commands (with proprioceptive and auditory feedback) | phonatory and articulatory organs | [Röntgen video here] |
| Acoustics | sound wave is produced | air | [s. next section] |