148 EXPLORATION: INVESTIGATING ENGLISH LANGUAGE
Once upon a time
Ada and Dad went into
the summer-house and
played on the piano
and did a book to
go into Dad’s book.
They made lots of books
then they went into
the house and finished
off their books. The
End.
q Examine Ada’s spelling patterns again. What is consistent in her system and what
is changing? Look closely at her letter-shapes.
q Looking at the content of the stories, how are her narrative skills developing? How
does she connect events? What evidence is there that her pronoun usage and
reference chaining are developing?
q Rewrite her final story above, keeping the content but expressing it in a more mature
form. What have you added and changed?
Developing narrative literacy
Here are six stories produced by children at different ages between 2 and 7 (the spelling
has been standardised from their originals). Try to put the narratives in chronological
sequence, based only on the style and organisation evident in the texts. In other
words, put them in the right developmental order. (Answers at the end of the unit.)
Before you look at the answers, make a note of why you placed your choices in your
sequence: which features of the narratives influenced your decision?
1 The bugs live under the carpet. Bugs like dark. Bugs come out at night. Owls come
out at night. Sleeping is at night. Owls don’t like sleeping.
2 We went to Grandad’s. We went to the seaside. We had ice-cream. The ice-cream
was too big. There was a car coming the other way and coming fast but we jumped
out of the way because Grandad shouted ‘Look out!’ So we went home then.

3 Alan lost his dog. He came back and opened the door and the dog ran out. We
helped him look for it. It was called Yo-yo. We looked in the woods and drove
around in the car, but we couldn’t see it. So we went to wait at home. And
Yo-yo was waiting in the house all the time.
4 My friend likes chocolate. That baby is good. They don’t want to play with us.
5 Once upon a time Ada and Dad went into the summer-house and played on the
piano and did a book to go into Dad’s book. They made lots of books then they
went into the house and finished off their books.
6 She doesn’t like me. She throws things and cries all the time. Today she wanted
the thing I was playing with. She said it was hers. It was not hers. We all have to
share. She shouted and didn’t get it.
Rewind your literacy
Once you have learned to read fluently (as you, the adult reader of this book, must
be doing right now), it is very difficult to remember what it felt like not to be able to
Activity 6.3
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Activity 6.4
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LEARNING TO READ 149
read. Even looking at a different linguistic script such as Chinese, Greek, Thai or Cyrillic
(if you are not a native of those countries where they are used) is not quite the same
as knowing the words of a language like English but not being able to read the letters
that form its writing system. It is virtually impossible for you to look at a piece of
English writing and somehow switch off the learned cognitive faculty that insists you
read it as meaningful – to see it again as a set of difficult shapes that require a great
deal of effort to decode and speak aloud.
In order to try to recapture what it feels like to be a 5- or 6-year-old, here is
a passage for you to read aloud. Just as young readers have an undeveloped sense
of genre and register, we are not going to tell you what sort of passage it is, because
that would help you to predict some of the words. Just like a 5-year-old, you must

work this out for yourself. Read it aloud once, and then – without looking back at the
passage – try to answer the questions that follow.
Finland hosted the 17
th
most international association meetings in the
world in 2007. Among congress cities Helsinki ranked 20
th
. Other Finnish
cities to be included in the top 100 included Turku (72
nd
) and Esposo (84
th
).
Finland was also the highest ranking Nordic country.
The survey, which was carried out by the Union of International
Associations (UIA), covered 176 countries and 1623 cities. Last year
Finland hosted a total of 438 congresses, including 200 that qualified
according to the UIA as international meetings. Of these, 79 were held in
Helsinki.
The rankings of both Finland and Helsinki dropped as expected
compared with 2006, which was the busiest congress year ever thanks in no
small part to the large number of meetings related to the EU Presidency.
1 Can you name the three cities that are mentioned in the passage?
2 Can you recall any of the rankings or scores of those cities in the survey?
3 Is Finland doing well as a conference destination or not?
4 Why was 2006 a very good year for conference meetings in Finland?
5 Is the article generally optimistic or pessimistic?
The original passage is taken from the business magazine Meet in Finland (Issue 3,
2008, p. 6). You will have realised by now that the text has been mirror-reversed. You
can make this exercise even more difficult by also turning the book upside-down. The

effect is to present you as a reader with letters that you have to decode into words.
The unfamiliarity of the letter-shapes means that you have to devote a great deal of
cognitive effort simply for the decoding process, so there is relatively little working
attention left for processing meaning. This is what it is like to be 5.
You might have found it reasonably easy to answer the name-recall question 1.
Most people find the numbers in question 2 harder to remember, but again this is
simply a recall of information that you have just spoken out loud. (If you read the
passage out loud to a group of other people, you might be surprised how much easier
they find it to answer the questions than you.) Questions 3 and 4 rely on some
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150 EXPLORATION: INVESTIGATING ENGLISH LANGUAGE
inferences that you have to draw from complete sentences in the passage, and
question 5 is the most cognitively complex of all, as you have to make an evaluative
judgement about the perspective of the writer across the whole text. It is highly likely
that your entire attention has been so greatly preoccupied with decoding the words
that you cannot answer these later questions with much confidence. This effort and
uncertainty is also what it felt like when you were learning to read.
Answers
The correct developmental order is 4, 1, 6, 2, 5, 3.
Narrative 4: Heaps. This is the earliest formal type of narrative, produced from
2 years old and onwards. Simple present tense is used instead of the adult normative
past tense. The ideas expressed tend to be unrelated and unconnected.
Narrative 1: Sequences. This type of narrative is typical of 2- to 3-year-olds. There is
a cohesive theme repeated, often following a person or animal, or focused in a
particular place. However, there are often no explicit cohesive links, and the whole
narrative might consist of several separate events.
Narrative 6: Primitive narratives. These tend to develop between 3 and 4 years old.
Here there is cohesive reference chaining (‘she’). The crucial advance from
simple sequences is an element of narratorial evaluation or a mention of emotion or
the state of mind of one of the characters.

Narrative 2: Unfocused chains. 4-year-olds tend to produce these. There is cohesive
chaining, but the connection is more likely to be focused on the place or the nature
of the event rather than on a character, as in primitive narratives. 4-year-olds
produce both unfocused chains and primitive narratives, but they generally stop pro-
ducing heaps and sequences by this time. Conjunctions begin to appear to mark out cause
and effect, to give explanations, or to draw attention to climactic points in the account.
Narrative 5: Focused chains. This is what 5-year-olds do, alongside unfocused chains,
while primitive narratives dwindle away. There may be multiple characters, and a sense
of relationships between them. The sequence of events makes sense and has a ‘tellable’
point. Often these narratives simply stop without a resolution or round-up.
Narrative 3: Full narrative. By age 7, most children can tell full narratives. The stories
have become longer, a range of tense and aspect is deployed, evaluations are
embedded in the narrative. Above all, such narratives have ‘tellability’, and often an
explicitly marked climax, moral, punch-line or other manifest finale.
EXPLORING THE MIND
Prototypes
Which is more fruity
q an apple or a banana?
q a blueberry or a kiwi?
q a cabbage or a potato?
C7
Activity 7.1
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EXPLORING THE MIND 151
q a stick of rhubarb or a walnut?
q a plastic apple or a real pumpkin?
Try to make snap decisions and then examine your justifications for your answers.
You can see the patterns in radial structures by writing down as fast as possible 50
examples of the following categories:
q furniture

q girls’ names
q flavours of ice-cream
q things to sit on
q American presidents
q alcoholic drinks
q routes from your house to work/school/college.
Alternatively, you can record someone trying these same tasks aloud without pausing.
Examine the items that appear early in the sequence and then later in the sequence:
what patterns emerge? Are there any semantic connections or common features in
items that are close together? Towards the end of the sequence, are there any items
for which there is disagreement about whether they should be included at all?
For a less disciplined version of this, record someone saying out loud and without
pausing the first 100 words that come into their head. Are there any semantic con-
nections between items in this free association? For example, are the items things in
the room, parts of objects, concrete or abstract, within one semantic domain or
randomly distributed, swear words, signs of current preoccupations, and so on? What
does all this data tell you about thought processes and language?
Aphasias
Aphasias are disabilities with language, usually caused by brain damage such as stroke
or physical injury (see A7). Two general types have been known about for a while.
Broca’s aphasia is also called expressive or production aphasia: speech is characterised
by a disordered syntax, repetition and halting articulation. Wernicke’s aphasia is also
called receptive or fluent aphasia: it has apparently well-formed grammar but odd
or inappropriate word-choices. Sufferers from Broca’s aphasia tend to retain their
capacities for comprehending the speech of others, but those suffering from
Wernicke’s aphasia find this much harder. Given this brief distinction and definition,
can you identify which of the following two famous passages is an example of Broca’s
aphasia and which is an example of Wernicke’s aphasia? (Answer at the end of the
unit.) In each, identify the specific features, and consider the differences between each
example and a more ‘normal’ speech pattern.

Passage A
‘I am a sig no man uh, well . . . again.’ These words were emitted slowly,
and with great effort. The sounds were not clearly articulated; each syllable was uttered
harshly, explosively, in a throaty voice. With practice, it was possible to understand
him, but at first I encountered considerable difficulty in this. ‘Let me help you,’ I inter-
jected. ‘You were a signal . . .’ ‘A signal man . . . right,’ Ford completed my phrase
Activity 7.2
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152 EXPLORATION: INVESTIGATING ENGLISH LANGUAGE
triumphantly. ‘Were you in the Coastguard?’ ‘No, er, yes, yes . . . ship Massachu
. . . chusetts . . . Coastguard . . . years.’ He raised his hands twice, indicating the
number nineteen.
Passage B
‘Boy, I’m sweating, I’m awful nervous, you know, once in a while I get caught up,
I can’t get caught up, I can’t mention the tarripoi, a month ago, quite a little, I’ve done
a lot well, I impose a lot, while, on the other hand, you know what I mean, I have to
run around, look it over, trebbin and all that sort of stuff. Oh sure, go ahead, any old
think you want. If I could I would. Oh I’m taking the word the wrong way to say, all
of the barbers here whenever they stop you it’s going around and around, if you know
what I mean, that is tying and tying for repucer, repuceration, well, we were trying the
best that we could while another time it was with the beds over there the same thing.’
Schemas
Consider the following passage firstly from the point of view of a description in an
estate agent’s/real estate office (which is its actual origin), and secondly from the point
of view of a burglar. Which different elements are foregrounded for your attention in
each case?
Undoubtedly, one of the finest examples of this type of property currently on the
market; this truly outstanding, beautifully presented and superbly appointed, four
bedroomed detached house has been comprehensively refurbished to an exceptionally
high standard and forms part of this small cul-de-sac within this popular and estab-

lished residential area, well served by local amenities and affords excellent access to
the motorway network. Plans have been submitted to extend the already spacious
accommodation to provide a double storey extension with a proposed large family room
and bigger third and fourth bedrooms together with an en-suite shower room.
Currently having a gas fired central heating system, Upvc leaded double glazing with
ground floor locks and comprising: cellar with built-in safe, hall with solid oak flooring
that extends through into the living room with contemporary style recesses to the
chimney breast for an LCD/plasma screen, dining room again with solid oak flooring,
kitchen being beautifully fitted out and recently refurbished, with excellent high quality
integrated appliances, fitted utility, downstairs W.C., landing, master bedroom with
impressive views across the fields and woodland, excellent built-in wardrobes, superb
en-suite luxurious shower room, three further bedrooms and exemplary family bath-
room again beautifully fitted out. One bedroom has second phone landline and broad-
band computer connection. Driveway, separate garage with space for two cars plus
workshop area for tools and bicycles and mainly lawned rear garden, secluded by a
high laurel hedge. Security lighting and alarm is fitted. Furniture and appliances are
included for viewing and may be purchased by arrangements, but property is available
for vacant possession. Viewings by appointment with the agents only.
Read the following recipe. An absolutely literal-minded robot who follows instruc-
tions to the letter would not be able to produce a lemon muffin after reading this.
Activity 7.3
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EXPLORING THE MIND 153
(See what the robot would not do at the end of this unit!) What schematic informa-
tion and activities do you bring to the reading that the automaton could not possess?
Lemon Muffins
1 egg
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup sugar

grated rind of 1 unwaxed lemon
juice of 1 to 2 lemons
Preheat the oven to 200°C (gas mk 6, 400°F). Place the egg, oil, milk and sugar in a
mixing bowl and beat together until sugar has dissolved. Add the lemon rind and lemon
juice and mix.
2 cups plain flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
In another large bowl, thoroughly mix the flour, baking powder and salt.
Add the liquid mix to the dry, and roughly mix it in – it does not have to be absolutely
smooth.
Fill a muffin tray with paper muffin cases, and then fill each case approximately two
thirds with the muffin mixture. Bake the muffins for 25 minutes.
Makes approximately 12 muffins.
(www.muffinrecipes.co.uk)
Riddles
Riddles (of the ‘What am I?’ sort) have been popular in English since the earliest form
of the language. They deliberately obscure or delay the application of the correct organ-
ising schema in order to provide a puzzle. What are the following describing?
(Answers at the end of the unit.) If you guess them correctly, can you account for
how they try to distract you towards the wrong answer?
q Poke it with your right foot and it moves. It growls when it does this. Poke it again
a bit to the left and it stops. It never gets hungry, but if you don’t give it liquids
it won’t work for you at all. What is it?
q John looked through the dirty window on the 30th floor of the office building.
Overcome with despair, he decided to pack in his job and everything there and
then. He slid open the window, jumped through, and fell all the way to the floor.
How did he survive?
q What goes up the chimney down, but cannot go down the chimney up?
q One of several rather rude riddles from the tenth-century Exeter Book – what is this?

Wrætlic hongaq bi weres 2eo, A curiosity hangs near a man’s thigh,
frean under sceate. Foran is 2yrel. Full under folds. It is pierced in front,
Biq sti2 ond heard, stede Is stiff and hard, and stands in a
hafaq godne; good place.
2onne se esne his agen hrægl When a young lord lifts his shirt
ofer cneo hefeq, wile 2æt cu2e hol Over his knees, he wants to greet
Activity 7.4
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