Final Escrita 3

Syllabus

● Functions (Cook)
● Structuralism
● Systemic functional linguistics

The classification of macro-functions

The most typical function of language is to transmit information (referential function)
According to Roman Jakobson the list of components of the scheme of communication
distinguishes seven elements, or factors of communication, that are necessary for
communication to occur:
1) addresser (sender), the person who originates the message
2) addressee (receiver), the person to whom the message is addressed
3) channel, the medium through which the message travels;
4) the message form: the particular grammatical and lexical choices of the
message
5) topic: the information carried in the message
6) the code: the language or dialect
7) The setting: the social of physical context

According to Jacobson the macrofunctions of language are:

1) The emotive function: communicating the inner states and emotions of the
addresser
2) The directive function: seeking to affect the behaviour of the addressee.
3) The phatic function: opening the channel or checking that it is working either
for:
a) Social reasons; or (do you come here often)
b) Practical ones (can you hear me)
4) The poetic function: in which the particular form chosen is the essence of the
message
5) The referential function: carrying information;
6) The metalinguistic function: focussing attention upon the code itself to clarify it
or negotiate it. (for example, when teaching a foreign language stating the
grammar rules)
7) The contextual function: creating a particular kind of communication (it´s just a
game)

The scheme of communication and the macrofunctions proposed by Jakobson are related in
the way that the different functions are related to the different items in the model of
communication.

1
"(1) the referential function is oriented toward the context (the dominant function in a
message like 'Water boils at 100 degrees'); (2) the emotive function is oriented toward the
addresser (as in the interjections 'Bah!' and 'Oh!'); (3) the conative function is oriented toward
the addressee (imperatives and apostrophes); (4) the phatic function serves to establish,
prolong or discontinue communication [or confirm whether the contact is still there] (as in
'Hello?'); (5) the metalingual function is used to establish mutual agreement on the code (for
example, a definition); (6) the poetic function (e.g., 'Smurf'), puts 'the focus on the message for its own
sake' [(Jakobson, 1960, p. 356)

Politeness
Politeness: linguistic position.
Three maxims
1) Don´t impose
2) Give options
3) Make the interlocutor feel good.
Face: our social territory, our image that we want to project. You may have a positive or
negative face; they have nothing to do with the definition of negative and positive.
Positive face: you are friendly, close; your social territory is narrower so you can be contacted
more easily. Example: friends.
Negative face: you are more distant, you want your face to be respected, and your social
territory is broader. This depends on many factors like authority. Example: a boss.

2
Once you know/recognize the face of a person at the right moment, you use/choose a
strategy:
Positive politeness strategy: being colloquial, not using mitigators, going direct to the point.
Example: "Pass me the pen".
Negative politeness strategy: full of mitigators, hedges. Example: "would you please, could
you, would you mind, would you be so kind".

Structuralism
Structuralism is the study of the meaning of the underlying structures that we find almost in
every aspect of our lives.

It is an approach to language that was developed by de Saucerre. He wanted to develop a

general theory of language that could be applied to any language.

Ferdinand de Saussure is considered the father of structuralism. He studied linguistic signs;

he wanted to create a general study of language (General, because he tried to study all the
possible in linguistic sign in a language). Unfortunately he died before he could finish his
theory. However, his student collected all the information and published it.

Before Ferdinand de Saussure, the study of language was referential. That is to say, all the
theories connected the word with the referent or the object/person to which it refers. They
have three parts: the word itself, the meaning and the object they refer to. The structure was
called “ the semantic triangle” and is composed by the thought/reference( the concept) that
refers to a referent/object, a symbol (the word) that stands for the referent (the object).

Ferdinand de Saussare presented a didactic linguistic sign in which we have only two parts:
The concept and the word. So you can include all the words you can think of, it was a general
study of language.
3
According to De Saussure the linguistic sign is divided in two parts:

-The signifier: The word itself, it could be the letters in the written mode or the sounds when
we speak

-The signified: the concept we have in our mind. He argued that there is no unique concept.
Since the concept is on our minds, it depends on what we think of when we say e.g “a cat”.

This theory got so influential that it appears in different disciplines. Theorists consider that
there are structures in literature, in grammar, in music, in psychology. For example when we
study a story, its form or its form, the plot. That is structuralist study of story. In psychology,
Freud explains the structure of our mind and its parts (conscious, subconscious,
unconscious). In grammar, when we study sentences, we have the head of the phrase, the
verb, and so on. So, there are structures in many aspects of our lives. There's always a head
and around it all the elements.

Characteristics of the linguistic sign:

-Non referential: This theory does not consider the referent, it only considers the signifier
and the signified.

-Arbitrary: There is no natural relationship between the signifier and the signified. When I
say “ table” there is nothing in this word that may be similar to a table( the object), or make
you relate it in a natural way.

-Conventional: The sign is conventional because we should all agree when we consider the
connection between the signified and the signifier. We all agree to call “table” a specific
object.

-Mutable-Immutable:

It is mutable because language is flexible and it may change. For example, a few years ago
“to chat”referred ti¡o face to face conversation, while nowadays, it means to have a
conversation through our phones, computers, etc

4
At the same time, it is immutable because we can not decide to change the connection
between the signifier and the signified on our own at a certain moment. The change exists
but it has to be conventional and it takes time.

-Relativeness/difference: The sign is relative, it depends on our culture. It is relative

because when you say a word, that word has a value and that value depends on the value of
the rest of the signs in a system. e.g if we refer to “snow” , this word in our culture is just one
word(one idea of snow), but for other people snow can be divided into 14 different ways of
saying “snow”. Another example can be the system of colours, not all the cultures have the
same system of colours, the same number of colours.

Structuralism- Peirce

Peirce studied the sign but included not only the linguistic sign but also other types of sign.
For him, a sign is what represents something else.

He considers three types of sign:

-Icon: signals in terms of resemblance, similarity. The icon resembles the original, e.g a map
because it represents the oceans, the continents, countries, etc.

- Index: signals in terms of causality. There is a cause and a consequence. For example
black clouds is an index for rain, smoke-fire; foot prints sb was there.

-Symbol: signals in terms of convention. There is no resemblance, there is no cause and

consequence, it is only a convention. We all agree using that symbol to represent something.
For example: phonetic symbols, letters; a dove-peace.

Structuralism- Levi Strauss

Another influential author in this theory is Claude Levi Strauss. The main aspects of his work
are:

a) Alliance theory which stresses the importance of marriage in society as opposed to the
importance of descent since the former has more chances of survival to all members
of the kin group. Incest appears as a mark of culture.
b) Human mental processes that emphasise that the mental processes are the same in
all cultures.
c) Structural analysis of Myth which is accompanied by the concepts of deep and surface
structure, binary oppositions like nature and culture (the latter transcends the former)
and mediation (between these two)

5
Binary oppositions

In Structuralism there are different binary oppositions; two ways of approaching the study of
language

1) Synchronic-Diachronic

The study of language may be Synchronic or diachronic. It is synchronic when you study the
language at a certain moment in time, when you produce language at that moment. De
Saucerre preferred this one.

The diachronic study of language considers language taking into account the passing of time
(pronouns in Beowulf)

2) Langue (language)-Parole (Speech; the way we use langue)

Langue is the whole system of language. Part of this system of language can be in our
heads, part of it in a dictionary, another part in a book, and so on.

Parole is an utterance, a production. The way we use language.

3) Paradigmatic- Syntagmatic

Different ways of approaching language. There are two axis:

Paradigmatic axis is vertical, a way of studying language taking into account substitution. All
the words that can substitute for one in a certain slot.

Syntagmatic axis is horizontal, it has to do with the combination of words .

NOTE:

De Saucerre only studied the linguistic sign (semiology)

Peirce /purse/ studied all the possible signs (semiotics) He said that anything that represents
sth else is a sign.

Systemic functional linguistics

Systemics. What is it concerned with? (Meanings)

Systemics can be said to be concerned with understanding text, identifying the grammatical
structures and the lexical choices that the author made. It is concerned with describing the
various patterns or structures of wordings which occur in the language in the context of the
communicative functions or purposes those patterns serve.

AIM: to understand these texts (a text is a complete unified stretch of language with a
purpose) identifying the grammar patterns and lexical choices the author made. The choices
would vary according to the purpose, therefore different organization and combinations of
structures.

6
Systemics is related to describing and understanding why text means what they do.

Example: run for your life. There´s no subject, it´s imperative and finite verb: Imperative (use
to giving orders)

John fears ghosts: there´s subject; finite verb; 3rd person. Declarative (used to produce
statements, provide information)

To understand text, systemics is concerned with describing which particular text or texts
types makes of various grammatical patterns and lexical choices and then with explaining
that use.

Systemics refers to these functions as meanings. We can talk about the 'meaning' of the
imperative as a grammatical resource (demanding/urging some action or response. Example:
Run for your life) versus the ‘meaning' of the declarative (offering some information. Example:
‘John fears ghosts’)

Systemics is described as both a “functional” and a "semantic" theory of language —it

describes the grammatical structures of a language with reference to their meaning or
communicative functionality.

Types of meanings: three different layers

1) Experiential meanings: you describe the reality around you. ‘This wall is brown’.
These meanings are divided into:
a) happenings and states: processes that have a clear beginning and ending and that
are represented by verbs (dynamic/statives)
b) entities: are participants and are represented by nouns.
c) circumstances: provide contexts (time, place), represented by adverbs and
prepositional phrases.

2) Interpersonal meanings: meanings by which speakers interact with one another,

influence the behaviour of others, construct and fill social roles, adopt attitudinal and
evaluative positions, form bonds, relationships and alliances. (It allows you to create bonds
with your interlocutor, to state a position, to show whether you are in control or if the
interlocutor is in control. how you relate with your interlocutor. relationship between the writer
and the interlocutor.)

These are divided into two categories

a) supplying information or goods and services - Declarative
b) demanding information or goods and services - Interrogative
This layer can be expanded.
For example, when giving orders change modality; with modals you can grade options
providing information. (must, should, would you be so kind…)
Grades of certainty through modality (have discovered vs. might have discovered)

7
3) Textual meanings: organisation and combination between interpersonal and experiential
meanings in the form of the texts. Enables the speaker to organise and interconnect to relate
what they are saying to what they said before.

There are different resources:

● Anaphoric and cataphoric reference: good tools for organising the text.
● Topic and comment: theme and rheme. Focus of attention; what the sentence is about.
● Demonstratives: Linguistic resources that show meanings to the interlocutor (here, there, this,
that)