The Basic Functions of Language

Language is a tool which performs the function of letting other people know our thoughts, ideas,
emotions, feelings and so on in different ways.

There are three major functions of language: Informative, expressive and the directive.

Informative Function

One of the basic functions of language is to communicate information of all kinds whether it is true
or false correct or incorrect, important or unimportant, general or particular. All informative
discourse is used to describe the world around us and to reason about it. Thus, the language which
includes propaganda of all kinds and even deliberate information is said to informative in function.
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The informational function can be considered most important, since it helps us deliver messages,
describe things, and give our listener new information. Actually, message is a word that describes
this function best.

 Informative language function: essentially, the communication of information.

a. The informative function affirms or denies propositions, as in science or the

statement of a fact..
b. This function is used to describe the world or reason about it (e.g.., whether a state
of affairs has occurred or not or what might have led to it).
c. These sentences have a truth value; that is, the sentences are either true or false
(recognizing, of course, that we might not know what that truth value is).  Hence,
they are important for logic.

Expressive function

As science gives us the informative function similarly, the poetry provides us the finest examples of
expressive function of language. Every poet expresses his own feelings and thoughts, ideas,
emotions and the experiments and experiences of life. Not only the poets use the expressive
language, but also the other people express their deep and tender feelings and emotions. Poetry
also gives a little bit informative function of language, but we must keep it into our mind that
poet’s purpose is to express his ideas, feelings, and emotions and to convey all these things into
readers mind. Thus, all expressive language may be analysed into two component elements, to
express the feelings and attitude of the speaker; and to evoke the same attitude or feelings in the
hearer.
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the expressive function. We need such function every time we want to express our feelings. There
are words that are used to express attitudes and feelings, which don’t deliver any particular
information. Obvious examples of such words are swear words, as well as various exclamations. This
. Due to the expressive function of language, we can understand the personality of a speaker, and his
or her emotions. While the informational function can be illustrated on the example of an
encyclopedia article, the expressive function is used in literature and poetry.
Every time we say a phrase like “I love this movie so much”, we don’t give a listener any particular
information about the subject of this sentence, except our feelings about it.
 Expressive language function: reports feelings or attitudes of the writer (or speaker), or of the subject, or
evokes feelings in the reader (or listener).
a. Poetry and literature are among the best examples, but much of, perhaps most of, ordinary language
discourse is the expression of emotions, feelings or attitudes.
b. Two main aspects of this function are generally noted: (1) evoking certain feelings and (2) expressing
feelings.
c. Expressive discourse, is best regarded as neither true or false. 
E.g.,
Shakespeare's King Lear's lament, "Ripeness is all!"
Dickens' "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom; it was the age of
foolishness…"

Emotionally colored language is appropriate in some contexts—in poetry for example—but

it is highly inappropriate in other contexts.
There are “seven dirty words” that may not be used on the broadcast media in
the United States—because they have unacceptable emotive meanings that are
sharply distinguishable from their literal meanings
Directive function
 
The third basic function of language is called “Directive Function”. Directive language is based on
commands and requests. For instance, if any person says something to another person for doing and
thing, as a mother says her child to say prayers before going to bed, it does not mean that mother
is giving information to her child or she wants to  arouse something in child’s mind; but the purpose
of her language is to make the child do what is indicated; similarly. Similarly, if we ask the
question from any body, there is an implied request for an answer. Commands and requests can be
interchanged. Commands can be changed by adding a “Please” at the beginning or by the suitable
change in the tone of the voice or in the expression of the face.
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Directive language function: language used for the purpose of causing (or preventing) explicit action.
Directive language is not normally considered true or false (although various logics of
commands have been developed)
 Example of this function: “Close the windows.” 
The sentence “You’re smoking in a nonsmoking area,”  although declarative, can be used to
mean “Do not smoke in this area.”
 The directive function of language is used to induce certain actions or reactions. The
example of such a function is a command. Another example of this function is a request. Here
situational meanings of a phrase are more important than a general meaning, which makes this
function somewhat similar to the expressive function. The directive function is a function of social
control and interpersonal interaction. Another feature of this function is that the reaction of a listener is
even more important than a thought expressed by a speaker, since this reaction determines whether
such a phrase achieved the target or not.
 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.
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Performative language (as when we say, “I apologize for my foolish
remark”), in which words themselves serve, when spoken or written, to perform the function they announce.
Other examples are “I congratulate
you, . . .” “I accept your offer, . . .” and “I promise you that. . . .”

The initial examples of performative sentences Austin gives are these:

 'I do (sc. take this woman to be my lawful wedded wife)' – as uttered in the course of the
marriage ceremony.
 'I name this ship the "Queen Elizabeth"'
 'I give and bequeath my watch to my brother' – as occurring in a will
 'I bet you sixpence it will rain tomorrow' (Austin 196

Examples (mainly of explicit performative utterances)

 "I now pronounce you married" – used in the course of a marriage ceremony
 "I order you to go", "Go—that's an order"
 "Yes" – answering the question "Do you promise to do the dishes?"
 "You are under arrest" – used in putting someone under arrest
 "I christen you"
 "I accept your apology"
 "I sentence you to death"
 "I divorce you, I divorce you, I divorce you" (Islamic: see: Talaq-i-Bid'ah)[2]
 "I swear to do that", "I promise to be there"
 "I apologize"
 "I dedicate this..." (...book to my wife; ...next song to the striking Stella Doro workers, etc.)
 "This meeting is now adjourned", "The court is now in session"
 "This church is hereby de-sanctified"
 "War is declared"
 "I resign" – employment, or chess
 "You're [hereby] fired."
 "Let there be light" – when said by a deity
 "I apologize."
 "I swear."
"I guarantee."

Functions/uses of language

The uses of language must be distinguished from the forms of language. The several uses of language
(informative, expressive, etc.) are implemented using different forms. Sentences (the units of our language
that express complete thoughts) may be declarative in form, or exclamatory, or imperative, or interrogative.
The grammatical forms of language are essentially four: declarative, interrogative, imperative, and
exclamatory. There is no sure connection between the grammatical form of a passage and the use or uses its
author intends.Language that serves any one of the three principal functions may take any one of the four
grammatical forms. In other words, there is no strict correlation between function and form.
It would be convenient if a given function were invariably executed using language in some specific
grammatical form, but that is simply not the case.
Language is too loose, and its uses too variable. Therefore, in determining the real function of a sentence,
context is always critical.
Much discourse serves all three functions--one cannot always identify the form with the function. Consider this
chart for the following possibilities. But note that context often determines the purpose of an utterance.  "The
room is cool" might be used in different contexts as informative (an observation), expressive (how one feels at
the moment), or directive (to turn on the heat).
 A mixture of functions is a natural feature of almost all our uses of language. Here are a few example
to clarify this point.
Sentences may express more than one function.

1- “Who is like unto Thee?”—but it is plain that this interrogative expresses a religious belief.

2- Without the intention to inform, we may express ourselves using language: “That’s really great!”
3- The poet, overcome by the beauty of an ancient city, channels his emotions in writing this line: A rose-
red city—“half as old as time.”

4- directive, with or without expressive or informative elements. It seeks to guide or to command. “Step
on the scale, please,”
or we may receive this good advice:
Drive defensively. The cemetery is full of law-abiding citizens who had the right of way.
5- Emotive language may be used to direct others:
“That conduct is utterly disgusting!” says parent to child, expressing an attitude, seeking to direct
behavior,
6- Ceremonial language (as when we say, “How do you do?”
upon being introduced to a stranger), in which words may combine expressive and other functions.
7- when we urge (direct) a companion to move more quickly by saying, “It is very late; we are running
short of time.”
8- Every time we say a phrase like “I love this movie so much”, we don’t give a listener any
particular information about the subject of this sentence, except our feelings about it.
9- 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.
10- A person who says to the waiter, "I would like a cup of coffee," is not just reporting a psychological
state of affairs. 
B- Most ordinary kinds of discourse is mixed. Consider the following example. Suppose you want your
listeners to contribute to the Multiple Sclerosis Society.
There are several possible approaches:
1. Explain the recent breakthroughs in the scientist's understanding of the disease (informative) and then ask
for a contribution (directive).
2. Make a moving appeal (expressive) and then ask for a contribution (directive).
 3. Command it (directive).
4. Explain the good results (informative), make a moving appeal (expressive), and then ask (directive).
 =
1. The ceremonial--(also ritual language use) probably something quite different from simply
mixing the expressive and directive language functions because performative aspects are
included as well.
Example:
"Dearly beloved, we are gathered here together to witness the holy matrimony of …." 

2. Phatic language:  a phatic expression is communication which serves a social function

"Elevator talk" and street-corner conversations accomplishing a social task. Note the subtle
transition from vocal behavior to body language from saying for example, "Hi" or "How are
you?" to a nod or a wave of the hand.  

Examples of Phatic Language

You're welcome.
"hello",
"how are you?"
"Hi"
"good afternoon"

3. Performative utterances: language which performs the action it reports. For example, "I
do" in the marriage ceremony and the use of performative verbs such as "accept," "apologize,"
"congratulate," and "promise." These words denote an action which is performed by using the
verb in the first person—nothing more need be done to accomplish the action.

EXERCISE from the book (Irving)

A. Which of the various functions of language are exemplified by each of the following passages?

1. Check the box on line 6a unless your parent (or someone else) can claim you as a dependent on his or her
tax return.
—U.S. Internal Revenue Service, “Instructions,”

3. What traveler among the ruins of Carthage, of Palmyra, or Rome, has not been stimulated to reflections on
the transiency of kingdoms and men, and to sadness at the thought of a vigorous and rich life now departed . .
.?
—G. W. F. Hegel, Lectures on the Philosophy of History, 1823

4. Moving due south from the center of Detroit, the first foreign country one encounters is not Cuba, nor is it
Honduras or Nicaragua or any other Latin American nation; it is Canada.

5. I was a child and she was a child,

In this kingdom by the sea,
But we loved with a love that was more than love—
I and my Annabel Lee—
—Edgar Allan Poe, “Annabel Lee,” 1849

6. Reject the weakness of missionaries who teach neither love nor brotherhood, but chiefly the virtues of
private profit from capital, stolen from your land and labor. Africa awake, put on the beautiful robes of Pan-
African Socialism!
—W. E. B. Dubois, “Pan-Africa,” 1958

7. If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
—I Cor. 13:1

8. I herewith notify you that at this date and through this document I
resign the office of President of the Republic to which I was elected.
—President Fernando Collor De Mello, in a letter to the Senate of Brazil,
29 December 1992

9. American life is a powerful solvent. It seems to neutralize every

intellectual element, however tough and alien it may be, and to fuse
it in the native good will, complacency, thoughtlessness, and
optimism.
—George Santayana, Character and Opinion in the United States, 1934

10. The easternmost point of land in the United States—as well as the northernmost point and the
westernmost point—is in Alaska.

B. What language functions are most probably intended to be served by each of the following passages?
1. There is no caste here. Our Constitution is color-blind, and neither
knows nor tolerates classes among citizens. In respect of civil rights, all citizens are equal before the law. The
humblest is the peer of the most powerful.
—Justice John Harlan, dissenting in Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537, 1896
2. Judges do not know how to rehabilitate criminals—because no one
knows.
—Andrew Von Hirsch, Doing Justice—The Choice of Punishment
(New York: Hill & Wang, 1976)
3. When tillage begins, other arts follow. The farmers therefore are the founders of human civilization.
—Daniel Webster, “On Agriculture,” 1840
4. The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
—Edmund Burke, letter to William Smith, 1795
5. They have no lawyers among them, for they consider them as a sort of people whose profession it is to
disguise matters.
—Sir Thomas More, Utopia, 1516
6. White society is deeply implicated in the ghetto. White institutions
created it, white institutions maintain it, and white society condones it.
—The National Commission on Civil Disorders (Kerner Commission), 1968
7. The bad workmen who form the majority of the operatives in many branches of industry are decidedly of
the opinion that bad workmen ought to receive the same wages as good.
—John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, 1859
8. War is the greatest plague that can afflict humanity; it destroys
religion, it destroys states, it destroys families. Any scourge is preferable to it.
—Martin Luther, Table Talk, 1566
9. Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.
—H. G. Wells, The Outline of History, 1920
10. The man who insists upon seeing with perfect clearness before he decides, never decides.
—Henri-Frédéric Amiel, Amiel’s Journal, 1885
11. Among other evils which being unarmed brings you, it causes you to be despised.
—Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince, 1515
12. Eternal peace is a dream, and not even a beautiful one. War is a part of God’s world order. In it are
developed the noblest virtues of man: courage and abnegation, dutifulness and self-sacrifice. Without war the
world would sink into materialism.
—Helmuth von Moltke, 1892

13. Language! the blood of the soul, sir, into which our thoughts run, and out of which they grow.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table, 1858
14. Over the past 133 years, more than 7,500 scientists, including social scientists, have been elected to the
National Academy of Sciences. Itappears that only three of them have been black.
—The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, Summer 1996
15. A little philosophy inclineth man’s mind to atheism; but depth in
philosophy bringeth man’s mind about to religion.
—Francis Bacon, Essays, 1601
16. You’ll never have a quiet world until you knock the patriotism out of the human race.
—George Bernard Shaw, O’Flaherty, V.C., 1915
17. If [he] does really think that there is no distinction between virtue and vice, why, sir, when he leaves our
houses let us count our spoons.
—Samuel Johnson, 1763
18. Man scans with scrupulous care the character and pedigree of his horses,
cattle, and dogs before he matches them; but when he comes to his
own marriage he rarely, or never, takes any such care.
—Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man, 1871
19. The story of the whale swallowing Jonah, though a whale is large
enough to do it, borders greatly on the marvelous; but it would have
approached nearer to the idea of miracle if Jonah had swallowed the
whale.
—Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason, 1796
20. The notion of race is the hydra-headed monster which stifles our most
beautiful dreams before they are fairly dreamt, calling us away from the
challenges of normal human interaction to a dissonance of suspicion
and hatred in pursuit of a fantasy that never was.
—C. Eric Lincoln, Coming Through the Fire
(Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1996)

Because a given sentence, or passage, can serve several functions— for example,
it can express feelings while reporting facts—the clever use of language
can be deceptive or manipulative, and the careless use of language can lead to
needless misunderstanding and dispute.
The words we use to convey beliefs may be neutral and exact, but they may
also have an impact on the attitudes of our listeners. The negative attitudes that are commonly
evoked by some words lead to the creation of euphemisms to replace them—gentle words for harsh realities.
Janitors become “maintenance workers,”
and then “custodians.” “Waiters” become “waitpersons,” and then “servers”—
and so on.
There are “seven dirty words” that may not be used on the broadcast media in
the United States—because they have unacceptable emotive meanings that are
sharply distinguishable from their literal meanings.
Emotionally colored language is appropriate in some contexts—in poetry
for example—but it is highly inappropriate in other contexts.