Language in Use 93-94
This unit is concerned with the basic fact that language works because much
of what we say is predictable. The aim is to explore the ways in which
we make predictions from what we have heard already about what is to come next.
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[1] This session shows how the occurrence of words in sentences can be predicted with different degrees of probability. This is done by playing the guessing game known as Shannon's Game. Put oil the board a number of dashes equal in number to the number of words in a sentence known only to the teacher, such as 'I like sugar in iny tea', 'There will be bright periods i6th occasional showers' or 'The prince turned into a frog'. The class should be asked to guess each word in turn, with the teacher recording the number Of guesses required. When this number reaches fifteen for any word, the teacher should supply the word and move on to the next.
[2] In this session the exploration proceeds by focusing upon:
(a) the different probabilities of 'form' words and 'content' words
(b) how the occurrence of some words means that certain other words are likely
to follow
(c) how some features, like a plural subject, a past tense, or a comparative
adjective, will immediately determine
others.
For (a) use Shannon's Game with sentences in which either the 'content' words or the 'form' words have been omitted, such as 'There will be ----- with -----' or '---------bright periods ----- occasional showers'. For (b) use sentences like 'I posted the letter in the pillar-box on the corner.' The work on (a) and (b) will provide sufficient examples of (c) for the needs of the discussion.
[3] This session now applies the idea of prediction explored in [I]
and in [2] to the clicli.6. Provide the class with a number of incomplete catch
phrases and topical, much-used phrases and ask them to supply the missing words.
Include examples which are likely to be outside the class's experience:
(a) because they are too voting to have met them or
(b) because the subject' is unfamiliar: for instance 'Take It From Here' and
'cost-effective'. This will serve to
bring out the fact that the success of our predictions
depends in part upon our experience, and not merely upon
the structure of the language.
The unit can be used as a basis for examining the part played by the cliche in various kinds of writing. The class will need a collection of examples from the kind of writing in which clich6s occur most frequently; likely sources are sports reports and the reports of political speeches. Any discussion should focus- upon how a writer can use clich6 to achieve a predictable response from his audience, and thus case his task of writing against time for a limited space day after day.