THEME C: SOUND AND SYMBOL
The units in this theme explore the nature of speech and its relationship to writing. The aim of the theme is to show that speech and writing are both highly organised, consistently patterned modes of expression, but that the writing system derives from the spoken language and stands in a complex relationship to it. Several of the units offer a close scrutiny of the popular, but linguistically unacceptable, assumption that the written language provides an appropriate model for judging the 'rightness' of speech.
The first two units are directly concerned with the relationship between speech and writing. 'Speech and writing' looks at it by working from speech to writing, while 'Making a script' works from the written to the spoken. The next two units examine two characteristics of speech and our attitude towards them. 'Distinctive voices' looks at some of tile features which make the sound of voices unique, and enables a class to see that they have nothing to do with the Sound patterns of the language. 'Accent' focuses upon the kind of judgements which we make about people based solely upon their accent. It enables a class to see that these judgements are primarily social, and not linguistic.
The next four units are all concerned with facets of language in use that are unique to speech. 'What is speech?' sets up a very simple experiment by means of which a class can discover for themselves just how different from conventional notions of fluent talk the patterns of natural speech really are.
As far as meaning is concerned, the most important difference between speech and writing is the degree to which we can alter meaning merely by changing the contours of what we say. The rise and fall of the voice as we speak creates distinctive patterns which are a vital part of the meaning of every utterance. These distinctive patterns are explored in 'Intonation', while 'Implications' looks at some of the less obvious ways of using the voice alone to determine meaning, and 'Words and gestures' at the way in which we use gesture to support or contradict the meaning of what we say. 'Dialogue' looks at the problems which confront a writer when he wants to create the illusion that his characters are 'talking naturally'. Many facets of the relationship between sound and symbol are touched upon, but especially the distance between the actual patterns of natural speech and any representation of them in writing which would be convincing to an ordinary reader.
The last unit, 'Spelling', is rather different from the others. It tackles the old misconception that English orthography is 'chaotic', unpredictable and incoherent. This is a technical matter and all the unit does is suggest a beginning, a way of showing a class that the spelling of English words is as ordered and systematic as any other aspect of the language.