Language is the most important tool of communication invented by human civilization. Language helps us share our thoughts, and understand others. It’s hard to overestimate the importance of language for our lives. Every time we speak, we do it with a particular purpose. Sometimes we want to deliver a message, or express our feelings. We use language to ask for help, or just to say a joke.
Generally, there are five main functions of language, which are informational function, aesthetic function, expressive, phatic, and directive functions. Any language is determined by a number of factors, such as a social background, attitudes and origin of people. Language is always related to situation it is used within. Every person has a certain social background, and this is what determines one’s language.
We are going to consider different functions of language, and its connection to social circumstances, since language is related to the type of social organization.
As we mentioned above, language is used in every part of our lives, and it’s the most important part of communication. We use language in every situation, every time we need something. In turn, our needs determine our language, since we choose a type of language that is most effective for our needs.
Every our sentence has its particular function. It may express a statement, or a question. It also may be just an exclamation. If we want to know something, we create a sentence in the form of a question. In other case, if we want to share information or emotions, we choose a statement structure.
Five Functions
According to Geoffery Leech (1974), there are five main functions of language. We mentioned all these five functions at the beginning. Now, let’s take a closer look at each one of them.
Every time we ask someone to bring us something, it’s a directional use of language. We motivate somebody and influence his or her behavior in a certain way. Sometimes directive sentences may express more than one function. For example, if we say “I’m hungry”, it means both information about us, and a request for food. This sentence also expresses our feelings, so this example represents three functions of language in one short sentence.
There are other classification systems for language. For example, H. Douglas Brown highlighted not five, but seven functions of language, noting that his system isn’t really different from Leech’s system. Generally, such an approach was introduced by J. R. Firth, who created a basis for British linguists, considering language as an interpersonal and interactive tool. According to him, language forms our behavior and helps us influence the behavior of others.
According to Jakobson’s functions of language, there are six types of them:
Exercises: |
1. According to your feelings and emotions at this moment, write 5 sentences about each of the function of languages. |
2. Try to express and identify hashtags / labels / characteristics that are important for your identity in: scholar OR academic, professional, personal, and civic areas. (E.g. boyfriend / son / mother for personal, independent for civic, etc.) |
3. Figure out which words / messages may be destructive in your relations and social environment. Try to list and avoid them. |
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