THEME D: PATTERN IN LANGUAGE
The aim of this theme is to make the exploration of the internal organisation of language possible without requiring, of teacher or pupil a technically descriptive Vocabulary or an explicitly linguistic mode of analysis. The pupil's objective is to discover that language is patterned, ordered, and predictable; that reasons for doing one thing rather than another stem from the structure of language itself and are not ail arbitrary requirement set tip by teachers or examiners.
The first four units Set Out the basic approach. 'Sounds, words and meanings' is a first look at the way in which different kinds of pattern in language relate to each other. 'Order in sentences' focuses upon the fact that language can only function because its structure is predictable. 'Words in sequence' looks in more detail at one area of the language, noun phrases, in which the balance between freedom to say what we like and the limitations upon that freedom, imposed by the structure of the language, are vcry sharply revealed. 'Patterns in language' ernphasises the 'patternedness' of A language by first asking a class' to code and decipher a message and then to treat a short passage from a language foreign to them as though it were a code.
The next two units are concerned with the judgements we make about others' use of language and the relationship of thosejudgements to tile internal Structure. of the language. Rule is a slippery word, given to meaning what we want it to mean, but in this context a rule is a facet of tile structure of the language which is obligatory for the user. If lie breaks it, another speaker of the language will have great difficulty ill understanding the meaning of his message, or will not be able to understand it at all. 'What is a rule?' looks at children's use of language, and considers features of it which an adult is likely to label 'mistakes'. 'What do we correct?' shifts the focus to the context of school or college, and looks at the kind of items which we often label 'incorrect', in the light of the linguistic rules of the language.
The next two units are also concerned with linguistic rules, but rules of a rather different kind. In English, if we want a sentence to be a statement, the subject must precede the verb. This is an obligatory rule of the language. If we break it, we cannot expect another speaker of English to grasp that what we say is a statement. If, however, we write tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor', a speaker of English assumes that we are talking about men, because it is a rule of the language that these refer to males, unless something is specifically said to the contrary. Rules of this kind usually allow us to reverse their operation. We can say 'female tinker' or 'woman tailor', or use some phrase like 'women in uniform' or 'sailors in skirts'.
This kind of rule is found throughout language and results in our having a very large number of expected elements in what we say and write. When the expected meaning does not meet our needs, we must use words or phrases to mark the fact quite clearly, otherwise the listener or reader will simply assume that we intend him to understand the expected, or unmarked, meaning. 'Expecting the usual' looks at this kind of rule in relation to particular meanings which users assume to be universal, while 'Marked and unmarked' considers more closely the degree to which language is so organised that we learn to expect the expected.
'Names in the High Street' looks at the way in which tile Sound rules of language put limits upon the inventing of names. The next two units are both concerned with understanding language which is unfamiliar to us. 'What is "difficult"?' concentrates upon the problems caused by unfamiliar words, while `Meaning' considers how many clues we have to work from when faced with an unfamiliar piece of writing. 'Ambiguity and ambivalence' explores how language can present problems to the reader, because the writer leaves open the possibility of giving more than one meaning to what he has written. Finally, 'Preaching', takes one cry distinctive way of using language and asks a class to consider how the language gives them clues to its nature and function.