Language Functions: Explanation, Uses and Examples

Language functions

The Language functions they represent the different objectives and purposes that are given to language when communicating.

Linguists studied the way we speak and found that all languages ​​change their form and function depending on the purpose for which they are used.

According to the Russian linguist Roman Jackobson, the functions of language are six:

Uses of the referential function

1. By transmitting verifiable knowledge. For example. 2 + 2 equals 4
2. By counting objective events that happened. For example: I arrived in Argentina in August 2014.
3. By reporting an event as it occurs. For example. Ma'am, she dropped her scarf.
4. When noting the state of something. For example: We ran out of potatoes.
5. By announcing some series of events to come. For example: I'll pick you up at the train station tomorrow.

Uses of the expressive or emotive function

1. By using a literal nonsense expression. For example: I'm deathly hot.
2. When communicating pain with a spontaneous reaction. For example: Oh!
3. By confessing our feelings towards others. For example: Blessed are the eyes!
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4. By asking us questions without waiting for an answer. For example: Why me?

Uses of the appellative function

1. When asking for information about something. For example: Can you tell me the time, please?
2. By asking for a reaction in others. For example: Would you let me pass?
3. By giving a direct order. For example: Eat all the food!
4. When requesting a service. For example: The check, please!

Uses of the metalinguistic function

1. When asking about something that was not understood. For example: Who are you talking about?
2. By not knowing the name of a concept. For example: What is the name of the device that you brought the other day?
3. By not knowing the meaning of a word. For example: What's that puerperium, Maria?
4. When explaining to a foreigner some question about our language. For example: In Peru we say "It's going to rain" as a form of playful threat.
5. By explaining grammar rules to someone. For example: I, you, he... are pronouns, not articles.

Uses of the poetic function

1. When formulating tongue twister, whose only discursive function is the challenge of being able to say them. For example: Erre with erre cigar, erre with erre barrel.
2. By using turns from the popular couplet. For example: Whoever goes to Seville loses his chair.
3. When reciting a poem in a specific situation, just for the pleasure of hearing its beauty. For example: I need the sea because it teaches me: / I don't know if I learn music or consciousness: / I don't know if it's a wave alone or a deep one / or just a hoarse voice or dazzling / supposition of fish and ships. (Verses by Pablo Neruda).
4. By using a stylistic expression to give an emphasis or power to what we want to communicate. For example: Spring is gone with you.
5. When writing or reading a literary work.

Examples of phatic function

• By starting a conversation and checking to see if it is heard For example: Hello? Yes?
• By asking for clarification of something that we did not understand. For example: Ah? Hey?
• By communicating through a medium that requires certain codes, such as radio. For example: Over and out.
• When talking to another, to let them know that we pay attention. For example: Ok, aha.
• When talking on an intercom. For example: Hello? Say?