LESSON ONE

LANGUAGE AND ITS FUNCTIONS

WHAT IS LANGUAGE?

▪ Language is a primary means of socialization. It interacts with the social,

political and economic power structures.
▪ It is the primary medium for the construction and transmission of
knowledge and for the articulation of ideas. In short, language constitutes
humans and their identities.
WHAT IS LANGUAGE?

Language is the capacity to obtain and utilize complex frameworks of

communication, especially the human capacity to do as such, and a language
is a particular case of such a framework. Language began from feelings while
others like have held that it started from sound and intelligent idea
(Agha,2006:41).
WHAT IS LANGUAGE?

Language is the methods by which people learn, interface and bond. Both
verbal and non-verbal types of language impart inconspicuous subtleties that
influence the significance of words and expressions. Communication can be
sorted into three basic roles for language: enlightening, expressive and order
(Hayakawa et al ,1990:67).
FUNCTIONS OF LANGUAGE

Language must be investigated in all the variety of its functions. At the time
people talk about language functions, they are talking about the reason for
using language.
JAKOBSON

Roman Jakobson defined six functions of language, with which an effective

act of verbal communication can be described. Each of these functions has
an associated factor.
JAKOBSON

Phatic Function
The phatic function deals with the connection between speakers. Its primary purpose is to
attract/establish, prolong, check, confirm, or discontinue this connection, and may be
composed of either culturally or non-culturally bound set phrases.
The phatic function means expressing solidarity and empathy with others. It helps to
establish contact and refers to the channel of communication. It opens the channel or
checking that it is working, for social reason.This function is used for sociability.
JAKOBSON

Poetic Function
The Poetic Function, also known as the aesthetic Function, deals with language whose
primary focus is the beauty of the language itself. The richness of sound and texture ,and
the balance that makes it a work of auditory art or poetic utterance“ .The other functions
need not be absent in poetic texts. They merely play a subordinate role, just as in other
linguistic genres, the poetic function is not absent, but only appears in a subordinate role.
JAKOBSON

Metalingual Function
Metalingual function is used whenever the addresser and the addressee need to check
whether they use same code and when the language is used to speak about language.
The clearest expression of the metalinguistic function is the metalinguistics itself, the very
language of grammar. But the metalingual function is currently present in ordinary
conversation as a means of control on the use of the same linguistic code by the
interlocutors
JAKOBSON

Emotive Function
It is also known as “expressive or affective function”. The emotive function focuses on the„
addresser‟. This function comes out when we want to express our emotions although one
doesn‟t speak to give an information.
JAKOBSON

Conative Function
The conative function is an orientation toward „addressee‟. This function finds it purest
grammatical expression in vocative and imperative sentences, and it helps us to make
people do something and it includes orders.
It is updated by those elements of the message that directly send to the recipient, meaning
that the speaker intended to influence, to some extent, the listener, engaging him in a
certain way in receiving the message. The most common grammatical expression of this
function is performed by direct forms of addressing the listener with verbal forms in the
imperative.
JAKOBSON

Referential Function
The referential function corresponds to the factor of context and describes a situation,
object or mental state. The descriptive statements of the referential function can consist of
both definite descriptions and deictic words, e.g. "The autumn leaves have all fallen now."
LEECH

Informative Function
The informative function of language involves information of giving and receiving. The
general assumption is that the content is believable and valuable. This function
concentrates on the message. It is used to give new information.
LEECH

Expressive Function
Language expresses and evokes ideas, thoughts and feelings. Expressive language may or
may not include any real information because the purpose of expressive use of language is
to convey emotion.
The speaker or writer tries to express his feelings. He or she reflexes his or her
impression. This function could give a clear image for the personality of the speaker or
writer.The best example of this kind is Poetry and literature.
LEECH

Aesthetic Function
The use of language for the sake of the linguistic artifact itself, and for no purpose. This
aesthetic function can have at least as much to do with conceptual as with affective
meaning. The function is associated with the message-the vehicle-as the poetic or aesthetic
function: the sign is taken as an end in itself.
LEECH

Aesthetic Function
Language is used a directive whereby we aim to influence the behavior or attitudes of
others. The most straightforward instances of the directive function are commands and
requests. This function of social control places emphasis on the receiver's end, rather than
the originator's end of the message.
LEECH

Phatic Function
Phatic Function is the function of keeping communication lines open, and keeping social
relationship in good repair. This language function correlates with the channel of
communication. It is used for opening, keeping or stopping communication line, to examine
whether the communication can take place, or to get the attention of listener and to make
sure whether the listener still follows the line of communication.
The example of this function mostly can be found in greeting (opening the conversation),
introducing, farewell and routine polite questions.
HALLIDAY

Halliday identifies seven functions that language has for children in their early years.
Children are motivated to acquire language because it serves certain purposes or functions
for them.
HALLIDAY

• Instrumental: This is when the child uses language to express their needs
• Regulatory: This is where language is used to tell others what to do
• Interactional: Here language is used to make contact with others and form
relationships
• Personal: This is the use of language to express feelings, opinions, and individual identity
HALLIDAY

• Heuristic: This is when language is used to gain knowledge about the environment
• Imaginative: Here language is used to tell stories and jokes, and to create an imaginary
environment.
• Representational: The use of language to convey facts and information.
FINCH

Physiological Function
This may seem a rather trivial function but in fact a good deal of language use has a physiological
purpose. If you are a sports fan watching your favorite sport on television you may well feel the
overwhelming urge at certain exciting moments in the match to shout instructions to the
players: Go on, do not mess about, for God's sake shoot! The instructions are perfectly useless; they
serve no communicative purpose, but they allow people to release pent-up energy which
otherwise would be quite intolerable. A great deal of what they say when angry, in the heat of
the moment, is said simply to relate the physical and nervous energy generated by emotional
distress. It's often a mistake to take what is said in such moments literally.
FINCH

Phatic Function
It is surprising how often people use language for no other reason than simply to signal
their general disposition to be sociable. The technical term for this is phatic communion.
The word 'phatic' comes from Greek and means 'utterance'; it's the same root from which
people get 'emphatic'. So Literally this is speech for its own sake.
FINCH

Recording Function
This is a more obviously 'serious' use of language than the previous two, although not
necessarily more significant even so. People are constantly using language to record things
they wish to remember. It might be a short-term record, as in a shopping list or a list of
things to do, or a long-term record, as in a diary or history of some kind. It's the most
official use of language; bureaucracies thrive on exact records and modern commercial life
would be impossible without up-to-date and accurate files. Indeed, it's probably the most
significant function behind the development of language from being simply an oral medium
to becoming a written one.
FINCH

Identifying Function
Language not only allows people to record, but also to identify, with consideration
precision, an intense array of objects and events, without which it would be very difficult to
make sense of the world around us. Learning the names of things allows people to refer
quickly and accurately to them; it gives us power over them. In some cultures the special
name of god is sacred and not allowed to be spoken except by sacrifices because that name
is strongly powerful and could be used for evil purposes. This is the origin of many taboo
words. The Bible warns against using God's name 'in vain', or indiscriminately, and a special
value is attached throughout the New Testament to the name of Jesus.
FINCH

Reasoning Function
All of individuals have a running commentary going on in our heads during their waking hours.
For most of the time they are not aware of it; like breathing, it's automatic. Schizophrenics are
acutely conscious of it and imagination it to be coming from someone else. But the voices they
hear are really parts of themselves which they are unable to acknowledge. Running for the bus
or train they are constantly talking to ourselves in a form of continuous monologue. Sometimes
it takes the form of a dialogue with some imagined 'other', but more often than not it is simply a
form of silent thinking. As an exercise you might try thinking about something, making a
conscious effort not to use words. Making your mind blank is one of the most difficult things to
do because the brain is in a state of constant activity; its principal concern is with enabling us to
survive, and language is an essential part of that survival process
FINCH

Communicating Function
This is probably the function that most people would select first as the principle purpose of
language. And clearly it is an extremely important function. But as one has just seen, the
relationship between language and meaning can be problematic. Communication is a two-way
process. On the one hand people need to be able to use language to express ourselves to
others, and, conversely, we need it in order to understand what they are communicating to them
. There are of course a variety of reasons which may prompt the act of communication .People
use language for requesting, informing, ordering, promising, and reprimanding, to mention just a
few. In all these cases they could say that language is being used to perform certain speech acts,
or, more specifically, 'direct' speech acts
FINCH

Pleasure Function
There are various kinds of pleasure which people derive from language. At the simplest
level there is the sheer enjoyment of sound itself and the melody of certain combinations
of sounds. Most poetry exploits this function. Devices such as onomatopeia, alliteration, and
assonance all draw on the pleasure we find in euphony, as do rhythm and rhyme. This
pleasure is important in language learning. There is considerable evidence to suggest that
children respond as much to the melody of the language as to any cognitive content. Indeed,
spoken English is rhythmically organized around the syllable. The syllable is the smallest
rhythmic unit in the language. (Kenworthy,1991:72).