Nea Auxilio-Besmonte

MA Language & Literature

Ateneo de Naga University
1st Semester 2019-2020
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Functions of
Language
• Roman Jakobson
• Michael Halliday

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“

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○ Referential function
○ corresponds to the factor of
context and describes a situation,
object or mental state. It is used to
show things or facts.

Water boils at
100 degrees
Centigrade.

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○ Emotive function
○ also known as “expressive or
affective function”, focuses on
the addresser.

OUCH!

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○ Conative function:
○ orientation towards addressee. This
function finds it purest grammatical
expression in vocative and imperative
sentences, and it helps the speaker to
make people do something and it includes
orders.

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○ Phatic function:
○ deals with the connection/
contact 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.
“Are you listening?” “My dog died.”
“Do you hear me?”. “I’m sorry.”
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○ Metalingual function: 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.
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“You cannot feature a future you cannot picture.”
“Our queer dean for our dear queen.”
Alexander the Great

instead of

the Great Alexander

○ Poetic function (Aesthetic function):

○ deals with language whose primary focus
is the beauty of the language itself. It is
“the attitude towards the message itself,
centering on the message itself.
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“

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 referential

“
Wow!
You are
I aced
the the
best!
test.
phatic “A rat police
Dubai in a maze
fleetis
- Hey,
Gnat is what’s
includesa smallup?
free to go, two-
Ferrari,
as long as
winged
- stays
Hi, howfly are
Lamborghini,
it thatand
inside you?
the
resembles
maze.”
Bentley. a
– Margaret
metalingual mosquito. Filipinos
Atwood
call it “niknik”.

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Language is always a resource
for making meaning, and even
the infant who cannot talk is
developing language, and
thereby, learning how to mean.

-- Michael Alexander Kirkwood Halliday

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Halliday’s Classification of
Language Functions
a. Ideational function - language serves as an
instrument for the encoder (speaker, writer) to
express and articulate his idea and experience
internally.

b. Interpersonal function – language is used in

establishing and sustaining social relations.

c. Textual function - the availability of an internal

structure which makes it possible for the writer or
speaker to construct texts that are not only coherent
but also situationally appropriate.
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 Halliday (1975) identifies seven
functions that language has for
children in their early years.
1. Instrumental
2. Regulatory
3. Interactional
4. Personal
5. Heuristic
6. Imaginative
7. Representational 16
INSTRUMENTAL
○ uses language to express needs,
wants, choices, preferences

○ Examples: “I want to ...." “I need ....“

○ Classroom experiences: problem

solving, gathering materials, role
playing, persuading

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REGULATORY
○ language is used to tell others what to
do

○ Examples: “Pass your work.”

○ Classroom experiences: making rules

in games, giving instructions, teaching

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INTERACTIONAL
○ language is used to make contact with
others and form relationships

○ Examples: "Here I am ....“

○ Classroom experiences: structured

play, dialogues and discussions, talking
in groups

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PERSONAL
○ the use of language to express
feelings, opinions, and individual
identity

○ Examples: "You and me ...." "I'll be the

cashier, ....“

○ Classroom experiences: making

feelings public and interacting with
others 20
HEURISTIC
○ language is used to gain knowledge,
find things out, wonder, or hypothesize
about the environment.

○ Examples: "Tell me why ...." "Why did

you do that?" "What for?“

○ Classroom experiences: Question and

answer, routines, inquiry and research
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IMAGINATIVE
○ language is used to tell stories and
jokes, entertain, and to create an
imaginary environment

○ Examples: "Let's pretend ...." “Once

upon a time...”

○ Classroom experiences: Stories and

dramatizations, rhymes, poems, and
riddles, nonsense and word play 22
REPRESENTATIONAL
○ use of language to convey facts and
information

○ Examples: “I’ll tell you...." “I know…“

○ Classroom experiences: Conveying

messages, telling about the real world,
expressing a proposition

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 Halliday’s Functions of Language
Function Examples Classroom Experiences
Instrumental "I want to ..." Problem solving,
language is used to communicate gathering materials,
preferences, choices, wants, or needs role playing,

“
persuading
Personal "Here I am ...." Making feelings public and
language is used to express individuality interacting with others
Interactional "You and me ...." Structured play,
language is used to interact and plan, "I'll be the cashier, ...." dialogues and discussions,
develop, or maintain a play or group talking in groups
activity or social relationship
Regulatory "Do as I tell you ...." making rules in games, giving
language is used to control "You need ...." instructions,
teaching
Representational "I'll tell you." Conveying messages,
Use language to explain "I know." telling about the real world,
expressing a proposition
Heuristic "Tell me why ...." Question and answer, routines,
language is used to find things out, "Why did you do that?" inquiry and research
wonder, or hypothesize "What for?"
Imaginative "Let's pretend ...." Stories and dramatizations,
language is used to create, explore, and "I went to my grandma's last rhymes, poems, and riddles,
entertain night." nonsense and word play
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“

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LANGUAGE ACTIVITY: LUNCH AT JOLLIBEE
Directions: Complete the table below applying the context of MAK
Halliday’s Seven Functions of Language.

HALLIDAY’S FUNCTIONS DIALOGUE / STATEMENT THAT WILL SHOW PRACTICE OF

OF LANGUAGE THE FUNCTIONS OF LANGUAGE BY HALLIDAY
INSTRUMENTAL I want another cup of gravy.
REGULATORY Please get me the thigh part of the chicken.
PERSONAL The fries is not crunchy.
INTERACTIONAL May I join you?
HEURISTIC Why is it that your fries in not crunchy?
INFORMATIVE Sarah G. is the endorser of Jollibee.
IMAGINATIVE Jollibee is a Jollitown for jolly children.
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LANGUAGE ACTIVITY: LUNCH AT JOLLIBEE
Directions: Complete the table below applying the context of MAK
Halliday’s Seven Functions of Language.

HALLIDAY’S FUNCTIONS DIALOGUE / STATEMENT THAT WILL SHOW PRACTICE OF

OF LANGUAGE THE FUNCTIONS OF LANGUAGE BY HALLIDAY
INSTRUMENTAL I’d like to have 1 cheeseburger and iced tea, please.

REGULATORY Please assist

PERSONAL I think it’s going to be a long wait if I order cheese dog.

INTERACTIONAL
Hello, mam! What can I get you?

HEURISTIC
What’s in C3?

REPRESENTATIONAL/
You can get a free toy if you buy a kiddie meal.
INFORMATIVE
IMAGINATIVE Crew: Willing to wait for 5 minutes?
Customer: Why, not? What’s 5 minutes compared to the 5 years he
asked for me to wait and believe me, I’m still waiting in line. 27
 Teaching Implications:

“
1. Teachers need to understand how
language as a system functions and how
these functions are used by students to
satisfy their physical, emotional and
social needs as well as their need to
survive in their environment.

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 Teaching Implications:

“
2. Understanding how language
functions will help teachers process
the language used by the students
and what they really mean and in
return guide students how to use
language to mean what they mean.

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 “
CHARLES FRIES
NOAM CHOMSKY

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 Focus of discussion…

1. Background
2. View on Language
3. Criticisms
4. Implications to teaching language
5. Sample Activity using the language as
defined by linguists

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 “
“Language is speech. Speech is
language. The written record
is but a secondary
representation of the
language.”
CHARLES FRIES
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CHARLES FRIES
1. Background:

•Published Linguistics and Reading in 1962

•Fries’ approach to linguistics and to the

use of corpora in linguistics grew out of his
background, as well as the goals and
functions of theory that he adopted for his
linguistics.

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CHARLES FRIES
2. View on language:

Language is speech. Speech is language.

The written record is but a secondary
representation of the language.”

Language is fundamentally and primarily

audio-lingual, a matter of mouth and ears.
Print and writing are not language, but
arbitrary graphic symbols translatable into
speech for those who can break the code.
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CHARLES FRIES
2. View on language:

Fries thus rejects the layman's notion

that knowing a certain number of words
in a language is the criterion for
knowing that language, but maintains a
related notion, that knowing a language
involves knowing a set of items.

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CHARLES FRIES
2. View on language:

He speaks of lists of individual elements

(sound segments, sentence patterns,
lexical items) to be mastered, and says
that to learn a language, one must
make each of these items a matter of
automatic habit.

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 ORAL APPROACH

. Speech, structures and a

focus on a set of basic
vocabulary items are seen as
the basis of language
teaching.

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Oral Approach
• 2 Features
1) A much more clearly defined goal for
the first stage of language learning.

2) A much more complete understanding

of what is essential in the materials to
be studied in order to attain that goal.

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CHARLES FRIES
3. Criticisms:

•The theoretical foundation Fries’ view

on language is weak and students are
found to have difficulty using skills
learned skills in classroom in real
communication (Richards & Rogers,
1987).

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CHARLES FRIES
3. Criticisms:
•Chomsky (1957) showed that the structural
and the behavioristic approaches to language
are simply unfounded as they do not explain
the fundamental feature of language
learning: the ability to create novel and
unique sentences.
Children do not acquire their mother tongue
through repetition and habit formation.
There must be, however, an innate
predisposition that leads them to a certain
kind of linguistic competence.
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CHARLES FRIES
4. Implications to teaching language:

• Teachers play the role of a model

for the target language and are
supposed to provide very standard,
native-sound pronunciation and
intonation of the target language.

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CHARLES FRIES
4. Implications to teaching language:
• In order to be effective language
teacher, one should "know English, its
sound system, its structural system, and
its vocabulary.
• The main challenge for a teacher who
is interested in allowing her/his students
to take an active part in the class is the
way to achieve the previous aims (Harmer,
1991; Hubbard& Thornton, and Wheeler,
1983).
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CHARLES FRIES
5. Sample Activity using the language as
defined by Fries
• A lesson starts with stress and
intonation practice followed by a revision
and a presentation of new materials
(mainly structures or vocabulary).
The teacher then proceeds to oral practice
and drilling of the elements presented.
Finally, the lesson ends with reading
activity or written exercises.

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 “Language is a system
which relates meanings to
“
substance. It is a mental
phenomenon that is
innate. All children the
world over acquire a
mother language.”
NOAM CHOMSKY
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NOAM CHOMSKY
1. Background:
• Noam Chomsky is predominantly known
by people for his linguistic theories and the
views of children’s language development.
Chomsky’s linguistic theory has changed the
traditional way of studying language and he is
generally considered the founder of modern
linguistics.
Although Chomsky’s linguistic theories have
never been free of controversies, they are still
considered useful by many linguists (Crain,
2010).
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NOAM CHOMSKY
2. View on Language:

• A Universal Grammar exists for all

languages.

• Children are equipped with a Language

Acquisition Device.

• He suggests that language is an innate

faculty - that is to say that we are born with a
set of rules about language in our minds.
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NOAM CHOMSKY
2. View on Language:
• There is a genetically determined
"window of opportunity" for language
acquisition. If the child does not learn
its first language during this period,
then it will never attain full "native-like
mastery" of any language.

• Language competence
• Language Performance
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NOAM CHOMSKY
2. View on Language:
• Language competence refers to a
speaker's innate sense of language.
For the necessity of survival from birth,
these native speakers do not learn a
language through grammar lessons or
explanations of verb tenses. Instead,
they rely on a lifetime of practice to
determine what sounds correct.

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NOAM CHOMSKY
2. View on Language:
• Language performance relates to the
use of a language.
Native-speaking individuals -
performance of their language comes
naturally.
Those who learn English, or any other
language, as a second or third language
have to rely on the study of the
performance of that language.
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NOAM CHOMSKY
2. View on Language:
• Native speakers innately have the
right answers, and language learners
often have the tools to explain the
reasons why.

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NOAM CHOMSKY
3. Criticisms:
• Christiansen and Chater (2008) claim
that the Universal grammar “is subject
to a logical problem of language
evolution” (p. 508). They believe that
Universal grammar is in conflict with
biology and that the brain shapes the
language (Hinzen, 2012, 636).•

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NOAM CHOMSKY
3. Criticisms:
• Evans and Levinson (2010) claim that “…
UG is an unfortunate misnomer, because
there is nothing essentially grammatical
about the capacities an infant uses to acquire
language” (p. 2742). They believe that there is
no existence of linguistic universals. “UG is
refuted by abundant variation at all levels of
linguistic organization, which lies at the heart
of human faculty of language” (Hinzen, 2012,
636).

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NOAM CHOMSKY
3. Criticisms:
• There is no biological specific to
language according to Tomasello (2009),
Christiansen and Chater (2008) and Evans and
Levinson (2010).

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NOAM CHOMSKY
4. Implications to teaching language:• •

The teacher's role in the transmission of

learning is to keep the children engaged in the
learning process and interested in exploration
and independence.

Chomsky (2007) states that teaching is mostly

"common sense". It does not matter what is
covered; but how much you develop the
capacity to discover.

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NOAM CHOMSKY
4. Implications to teaching language:• •

Chomsky suggests that educational

institutions should be interested in "what the
student discovers for themselves when their
natural curiosity and creative impulse are
aroused not only will be remembered but will
be the basis for further exploration and
inquiry and perhaps significant intellectual
contribution" (Arnove, 2005).

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NOAM CHOMSKY
5. Sample Activity using the language as
defined by Chomsky

• Explore grammar concepts

• Why are certain words put together the
way they are? What can we learn about roots,
prefixes, and suffixes in explaining why
English speakers say what they do?
• Have students point out irregularities in
English

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NOAM CHOMSKY
5. Sample Activity using the language as
defined by Chomsky

• When you begin to learn the rules of the

language what kinds of important exceptions
do you find?
• Learn new kinds of vocabulary together
• What can all students learn about
English in learning completely new
vocabulary?

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Any questions?

THANKS!
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