pattern (n.)

In the general sense of ‘a systematic arrangement of UNITS’, this term is found in LINGUISTICS and PHONETICS, without any special implication. Certain theoretical implications may be added in some contexts, however. For example, in language teaching, pattern drills (or ‘structure drills’) refer to the use of a SUBSTITUTION-frame technique for the practice of a particular STRUCTURE. Also, in PHONOLOGY, the term has been used to refer specifically to any neatness of arrangement that can be demonstrated in a sound SYSTEM – a UNIT such as a PHONEME being seen as a point in a pattern of sound relationships. It is felt that a phonemic pattern ought to be regular and symmetrical, and that the demonstration of pattern congruity in an analysis is a desirable feature. Whether a sound cluster should be analyzed as one phoneme or two, for example, may depend on the parallel patterns that can be demonstrated between this CLUSTER and other phonemes; e.g. English  and  on this criterion would be analyzed as single phonemes, as a STOP+ FRICATIVE analysis would receive little support elsewhere in the system. The phrase gap/hole in the pattern is often used to refer to a lacuna which spoils the symmetry of an analysis, as when a series of unrounded VOWELS might have a corresponding series of ROUNDED vowels except for one case.