Six propositions express central and crucial functions of language. Knowledge of these concepts constitutes language awareness, and they should therefore be used as a basis for designing language awareness curricula. They are that: (1) each individual has the ability to produce an unlimited number of different utterances from the limited vocabulary and rules he has at any given time; (2) the rules of language are as interesting and meaningful when they are broken as when they are followed; (3) language is at the same time relatively stable and in the process of continuous change; (4) language varies elaborately with social factors; (5) people's language is as individual as the people are, but it can be used by different people to accomplish many things; and (6) utterances have two levels of interpretation: the content itself, and its relationship to what has gone before and what is to come, to the receiver's position, to how it will be received, and so on. (MSE)