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The communication process. Language functions.
Language in use. The negotiation of meaning.

1. Introduction
Language is a means of communication among people in society. Language users should
know how to transmit messages in a communicative way to a given audience in a specific
situation.

Language means nothing without a context. Messages are produced in different situations.
Even the same piece of language can have different meanings depending on the situation
where communication takes place.

These are all the elements that take place in communication: there must be a speaker who
transmits information and somebody ready to receive the information in a specific code
shared by both the speaker and the listener. All this happens within a context and through
a channel.

2. What is language?
Language is a signalling system. When we refer to human language, we are basically
referring to spoken language. Written language is secondary, as speech is learned before
writing.

According to different trends in Linguistics, several definitions of language can be put

forward:

• Structural definition: a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human

communication.
• Transformational definition: the sentences that can be generated by the grammar of
that language.
• Functional definition: language binds people socially.
• Semantic definition: a set of options or alternatives in meaning which are available
both to the speaker and to the listener.

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3. The communication process

Communication can be defined as the exchange of messages described by (Sapir, 1921) as
the dynamic aspect of society. Semiotics is the science that studies all these sign systems
used in communicating.

In Linguistics, communication is the process in which a sender transmits a message to a

receiver. In this process, there are several elements:

• The sender: the subject who wishes to communicate information.

• The message: the content of the information sent to the receiver.
• The receiver: the person who decodes the message.
• The channel: the natural medium through which the message circulates.
• The code: the set of rules used by both the sender and the receiver.
• The context: the situation in which the message appears.

Undoubtedly, this process is crucial in human communication. However, linguistics has

evolved a lot in recent years, and new approaches to the concepts of communication and its
process have emerged. The Relevance Theory (Sperber & Wilson, 1995) states that during
a communicative act, the sender, voluntarily, produces a set of signals that do not belong to
a code and that we call signs. These signs are understood by the recipient because there is
a natural cause-effect relationships.

We speak, then, of a process of ostension-interference in which we understand by

ostension the natural emission of indications and by inference the process by which the
receiver can reconstruct the links that unite the signal and the content to which it refers.
Any act of communication, thus, combines encoding-decoding processes with ostension-
inference processes to achieve correct communication.

4. Language functions
(Jakobson, 1956) established the functions of language based on the factors observed in
communication.

• The emotive function: oriented towards the sender, as in interjections that show
emotions.
• The conative function: addressed to the receiver, as in imperatives or requests.
• The poetic function: emphasis on the message.
• The referential function: oriented towards the context (weather forecasts).

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• The phatic function: oriented towards the channel and serves to establish, prolong
or discontinue communication.
• The metalinguistic function: to establish mutual agreement on the code.

On the other hand, (Searle, 1969) divides speech into five acts:

• Commissive acts. They commit the speaker to doing something in the future, such
as a promise or a threat. I’ll take you to the movies tomorrow.
• Declarative acts. Change the state of affairs in the world. I find you guilty as charged.
• Directive acts. They have the function of getting the listener to do something. Why
don’t we play trivial?
• Expressive acts. The speaker expresses feelings and attitudes about something: I’m
sorry.
• Representative acts. The speaker describes states or events in the world. There are
usually a lot of traffic accidents on holiday.

(Halliday, 1973) identifies seven function that language has for children in their early years:

• Instrumental. To express their needs (Want juice).

• Regulatory. To tell others what to do (Go away).
• Interactional. To make contact with others and form relationships (Love you,
mummy).
• Personal. To express feelings, opinions, individual identity (Me good girl).
• Heuristic. To learn about and describe their world.
• Imaginative. To create images and pleasurable effects by talking.
• Representational. To inform.

Later on, (Halliday M. A., 1994) analysed the functions of adult language and distinguished
the following language metafunctions:

• Ideational. It is about the natural world in the broadest sense, including our own
consciousness, and it is concerned with clauses as representations. It refers to the
field of a text.
• Interpersonal. It is about the relationship between speaker and hearer. It is
concerned with clauses as exchanges. It refers to the tenor of a text.
• Textual. It is about the flow of information in a text, and it is concerned with clauses
as messages. This function refers to the mode of a text.

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5. Language in use
Language use refers to the communicative meaning of language. It can be compared to
usage, which refers to the rules for making language and the structures we use to make it.

Approaches to language teaching have focused on the use of language to communicate, not
on the learning of language usage. Language in use is taught and learned taking into account:

• The Form of the structure

• The Phonology, which helps learners understand spoken English and make their
own speech more natural, comprehensible and meaningful.
• The Function, that is, the purpose for which the language is to be used and the
contexts in which it is used, by whom and in which situations.
• The Meaning, the message that the speaker intends to convey.
• The Register and appropriacy, that is, when and with whom it is appropriate to use
the language.

6. The negotiation of meaning

When one says something, we can probably make the following generalisations:

• They want to speak/write. A sender makes a definite decision to address someone.

• They have some communicative purpose. They say things because they want
something to happen as a result of what they say.
• They select from their language store. In order to achieve their communicative
purpose, they will select from the store of language they possess the language they
think it is appropriate for the purpose.

We can also make some generalisations about the listener/reader of language.

• They want to read/listen to something.

• They are interested in the communicative purpose of what is being said.
• They process a variety of language.

Sometimes the negotiation of meaning can be interfered by some elements of the

communicative process. For example, if both sender and receiver do not share the same
code. Additionally, all paralinguistic behaviour tell people something. But unless the
receiver is familiar with the conventions, they cannot be communicative.

Taking all the above mentioned into account, we may talk about intentional and
unintentional acts, communicative or informative acts. Let us see an example:

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If I am talking to a person and this person blinks an eye at me, this act can be:

• Intentional: whether communicative (the person wants to flirt with me) or non-
communicative (something has gone into his eye).
• Unintentional: whether non communicative (the speaker does not realize he is
making such a gesture); whether informative (he does not want to communicate
anything and yet I read the information in the gesture) or non-informative (I ignore
the act).

Learners need to be aware of the culturally acceptable ways of interacting with others. Body
language is as important as vocal language in the communicative process and the
negotiation of its meaning is essential.

7. Conclusion
A speech community uses language, both vocal and body language, to express a series of
communicative functions. On the other hand, for communication to take place, two
members of a community have to share some characteristics and intentions so the
negotiation of meaning can be possible.

Bibliography
Halliday, M. (1973). Explorations in the functions of language. London: Edward Arnold.

Halliday, M. A. (1994). Introduction to functional grammar. London.

Jakobson, R. (1956). Fundamentals of Language. Boston: Mouton.

Sapir, E. (1921). Language: An introduction to the study of speech. New York: Harcourt.

Searle, J. (1969). Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language.

Sperber, D., & Wilson, D. (1995). Relevance: Communication and Cognition. Oxford.