Language in Use 107

The language is so patterned that there are limits on what can be done if a new word needs to be invented. The aim of this unit is to show how clear-cut these limits are, by looking at the ways in which names are invented for shops and commercial products.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[1] For this session the class need to have made a collection of shop and commodity names. Working in small groups, they should sort this collection into two categories, those that involve play on sound and those that involve a play on meaning. In the following discussion, the focus should be on what patterns occur; what can and cannot be done; and how much more latitude there is for word play than play with sound. Note should be taken of the width of appeal the name might have: for instance, most names for dress boutiques make little sense to an older age group.

[2] The class, working in the same small groups, should make tip new names for shops and commodities, which should then be circulated. Each group must then decide what features of the language are being exploited, and where the limits have been exceeded. In inventing names, each group must provide a proper context for the shop or commodity concerned by referring to its situation and its appeal.

[3] This session requires a piece from each member of the class showing how adults react to shop and commodity names that are new to them. Circulate the pieces and ask the class to consider why people resist some names and not others. Let them refer to the work of [2] and decide who might resist their own inventions and why. The aim of this discussion is to bring out the relationship between people's subjective feelings about limits in using- language and the limitations that are properly part of the internal organisation of the language.

top