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Six Function of Language

The document discusses Roman Jakobson's six functions of language. Jakobson defined six factors of communication: addresser, addressee, context, message, channel, and code. These six factors represent the six functions of language: referential, poetic, emotive, conative, phatic, and metalingual. The referential function conveys facts or information, while the poetic function emphasizes the artistic qualities of language. The emotive function focuses on conveying the addresser's emotions, and the conative function directly addresses the addressee. The phatic function tests contact between speakers and receivers, and the metalingual function describes or discusses language itself. Understanding these six functions

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109 views

Six Function of Language

The document discusses Roman Jakobson's six functions of language. Jakobson defined six factors of communication: addresser, addressee, context, message, channel, and code. These six factors represent the six functions of language: referential, poetic, emotive, conative, phatic, and metalingual. The referential function conveys facts or information, while the poetic function emphasizes the artistic qualities of language. The emotive function focuses on conveying the addresser's emotions, and the conative function directly addresses the addressee. The phatic function tests contact between speakers and receivers, and the metalingual function describes or discusses language itself. Understanding these six functions

Uploaded by

Richard Gaotama
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Six Function of Language

Language is important part of our communication, we can never communicate


with another person without any form of language. While there are many different
kind of languages around the word, we are all agree that language have many
different set of function and being able to understand the function of language may
help us to learn in English language. However, what are these function and how do
they work ?. To answer this question many Linguists have tried to established their
own set of functions, such as Karl Bühler, with his organon model. One of the
linguists that this essay are going to focus on is a Russian Linguists named, Roman
Jakobson with his Six Function of language.

In 1960 Roman Jakobson, who was influenced by Karl Bühler's organon


model defined language of having six factors. These six factors are important for
communication to happen and also explain how language works. The six factors
are : Addresser (Speakers), Addressee (receiver), context, message, channel, and
code. According to these six factor, The ADDRESSER will send MESSAGE to the
ADDRESSEE, but the ADDRESSEE must understand the CONTEXT of the
MESSAGE in order to understand it correctly. Not only that, the ADDRESSEE also
have to be ready to established CONTACT with the ADDRESSER and, then should
be able to DECODE the MESSAGE to understan it’s content. These six factors
represent the six function in language, which is Emotive, Conative, Referential,
Poetic, Phatic, and metalingual. These six functions are essential as building block in
any form of communications and we often used them without knowing about it.

Let’s start with Referential function. Referential function is a function of


language that is used to establish the context by conveying or showing fact, or
information. Referential function usually is conveyed by describing situation, object,
or even mental state, such as : “the earth is round” (object), “The night is frightening”
(situation), or “She has OCD” (mental state).Referential function does not need to
consist only definite words, but can also consist of deictic words as well, such as “the
autumn leaves has fallen now”

Second is Poetic function. Poetic function is a function that is used to convey


the message in communication. Poetic function is often described as “message for
it’s own sake”, because poetic function emphasized on the message itself, for
example phrase such as “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers” is phoetic,
because it rhymes and focus on the artistic quality of the language, rather than the
information than it will give.

Third there is Emotive function. Emotive function is a function that


emphasized it’s focus on the addressers by giving information of the addressers
emotion and internal state to the addressee, it may or may not contain other
information aside from addresser feelings or emotions. Emotive function usually are
words with of interjection or the change of tone and sound of the voice without
changing the meaning if the words, such as : “Wow, what a view !”, “hahaha !”,
“Nice”, Horray, etc. Each of the example can be used to express different kind of
emotions to the addressee depending on how the addresser express them, for
example saying “Wow, what a view” with flat tone signify the lack of interest, while
with high tone it might signify excitement. On the other hand, word such as “hooray”
don’t really have a meaning on it’s own and used purely to express emotions.

Fourth, Conative function. Conative function is a function that puts it’s focus
on the addressee directly. Conative function can be exemplified by the use of
imperative, such as “bring me some coffee”, vocatives, such as “Jade, I know where
you are”, or declarative, such as “You ran”. The difference between Declarative and
Imperative sentence in Conative is Imperative sentence can’t be transformed into
interrogative sentence, for example imperative words such as “Run!” can’t be
questioned into true or not sentence, while declarative words or sentence such as
“they run” can be transformed into true or not question.

Fifth, is Phatic function. Phatic function is function that test the Contact
between the speakers and the receiver and to make sure that both the speakers and
the receiver understand and ready to engage in communication or to end
communication. Phatic function can be found in the form of greetings, verification, or
closing of communication, such as “Hello ?”, “Do you know what I mean ?”, “good
bye”, etc. Phatic function are also language function that is shared by animals, such
as talking birds and also the earliest function that infants can use.

Lastly, there is Metalingual function. Metalingual function is a function of


language to describe or discuss itself. Metalingual function is used to help the
addressee decode the code given by addresser. Metalingual function is usually used
to explain some uncommon terms in languages to help the receiver understand what
the speakers are talking about, such as “Hegemony is not a common word”, “Nat has
to be added by affixes”, “Democracy means people rule”, etc. Metalingual function is
not only strictly used by linguists, but also used in ordinary lives, such as when a
mother is teaching her child a new language.

In conclusion, Language is important tool that can perform certain function in


order to establish communication. Six function of language by Roman Jakobson help
to explain to us that we can use language to give information, express our feeling,
address other people, ask for information, create arts as well as to study the
language itself. Knowing these function can help us to learn foreign language as well
as using it more easily.

Reference :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jakobson%27s_functions_of_language
https://www.slideshare.net/FirraBannie/speech-function-politeness-and-cross-
cultural-communication
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxbFGWHkZFc&t=72s
https://nayanrawat.blogspot.com/2019/10/six-functions-of-languages-by-roman.html

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