Since behaviorist conceptions fail to account adequately for the individual's unique reorganization of knowledge and his generation of original sentences, this study was intended to produce a conceptual structure to describe the systematic processes of high-order language events as a basis of a theory of language and teaching practice. It proceeded from a retroductive method and theory-model approach. Two orders of language process constituents are examined: (1) the processes by which cognitive and linguistic competence are developed, and (2) the regular structure and operational principles through which such processes appear to be given form in a social context. The most notable feature of the language event, the elucidation of meaning, involves two cognitive (hence linguistic) modes: metaphorizing and explicating. An English curriculum theory based on the schema would stress heuristic approaches to teaching, insist on production competence, and focus on the centrality of man as the symbolizer in the study of language, rhetoric, and literature. The processes of metaphorizing, explicating, role-taking, and interpreting would be emphasized as the chief unifying features of English. (Author/JM)