FUNCTIONS OF LANGUAGE

an almost infinite number of purposes.

Humans use language for
of recurring functions
However, if we think aböut it, there are a number
uses we make of language, 'are
which, despite the many ditterent
are apparently so ordinary as almost to
generally being served. Some
pass unnoticed as functions, whilst others are loftier and almost
abstract. But the important ,thing to recognize is that, linguistically

speaking, they are all of equal importance.. Whatever social significance

itself does not discriminate.
we may give to various functions, language
Tf's useful first of all to distinguish between the micro and macro
functions of language. Micro functions, as the name suggests, cover the
Darticular individual uses whilst macro functions relate to the larger,
more general purposes underlying language use.
Micro Functions

i. Physiological fuunction
function but in fact a good deale

a rather trivial watchina

This may seem purpose. II a sports fan is ng
phySiologica
has urge at
use a
language
television he may Ieel the overwhelming
his favourite sport on the m a t c h to shout instructions
to the
moments, in
certain exciting God's sake shoot! The instructions S
Go on, don't mess about, for
players: n o communicative purpose,
but they
are perfectly
useless; they serve
would be quite
to release pent-up energy which otherwise
allow humans
humans say when angry, in
the heat of
deal of what
intolerable. A great
simply to relieve the physical and nervous energy
the moment, is said
emotional distress.
generated by

ii. Phatic function for no other reason

It is surprising how often humans use language
to be sociable. The
than simply to signal their general disposition
technical term for this is phatic communion. The
word 'phatic' comes
is speech for its own
from Greek and means utterance'. So, literally this
sake. The term was coined by Malinowski, the anthropologist,
who was
and
struck by how much of what humans say is essentially formulaic
meaningless. Inquiries about health, comments on weather, affirmation
of some supremely obvious state of things all such are exchanged, not
in order to inform, not in this case to connect people in action, certainly
ol
not in order to express any thought but just to create an air
sOciability. Malinowski suggests that language acts as a form of social
bonding, that it is the adhesive which links people together.

iii. Recording function

This is a more obviously,'serious' use of language than the previous
two, although not necessarily more significant even so. Humans are

Constantly using language to record things they wish to remember. it

gnt bea short-term record, as in a shopping list or a list of things to
do,
or a long-term record, as in a diary or history of some kind. It's the
most official use of modern commercial life would be
language;
impossible without up-to-date and accurate files. Indeed,
the it's proDaDiy
most significant function behind the development of l¡nguage iro
being simply an oral medium to becoming a
written one.
iv. Reasoning function
Humans have a running commentary going on in their heads durng
their waking hours. For most of the time they are not aware of it; like
breathing, it's automatic. Running for the bus or the train they are
constantly talking to themselves in a form of continuous monologue.
Sometimes it takes the form of a dialogue with some imagined 'other, but
more often than not it is simply a form of silent thinking. Making ouur
mind blank is one of the most difficult things to do because the brain is
in a state. of constant activity; its principal concern is with enabling
humans to survive, and language is an essential part of that survival
process. Language doesnt just express thought, it also creates it.

v. Communicating function
This is probably the function that most people would select first as the
principal purpose of language. And clearly it is an extremely important
function. Communication is a two-way process. On the. one hand the
people need to be able to use language to express themselves to others,
and, conversely, they need it in order to understand, what others are
communicating to them. There are, of course, a variety of reasons which
may prompt the act of communication. People use language for
requesting, informing, ordering, promising, and reprimanding, to
mention just a few. Clearly the need to understand and be understood,
to have human feelings and ideas recognised and acknowledged, is an
important need of human beings. Language has become especially well
équipped to perform this function because the dominance and survival
of the human race depends on it, All human achievement is bound up
in some way with successful acts of communication.

Macro Functions

i. The ideational function

It can be seen that there is a common mental or conceptualizing
process involved with a number of the micro functions identified above.
In using language to identify things, or as an instrument of thought, or
to provide a record, humans use language as a symbolic code to
represent the world around them. The ideational function, then, is the
function through which humans conceptualize the world for their own
 of others. In a sense they bring
the world into being
benefit and that
linguistically.

function
ii. The interpersonal
in addition to using language to conceptualize the world humans
Clearly,
Humans gain much of their sense of
also use it as a personal medium,
their relationships both with
identity, of who and what they are, from
animate.and inanimate and language is an essential part of that
things,
personalizing process. It can be said that rather than bringing the world
into being, this function is concerned with the way humans bring
of
themselves intobeing linguistically. Using language as a means
to release
communication, for purposes, of phatic communion,
or

nervous/physical energy, involves activities in which humans prioritize

the interpersonal function of language.

iii. The poetic function

Any functional account of language must take into consideration that side
of human nature in which rather than conceptualizing the world or
interacting with it they are simply playing with it. In this sense the word
poetic' doesn't mean the ability to write poetry. It means the ability to
bring the world into being as an area of play. It is by such means that we
bring delight to ourselves and others, but we also do much more. We
render the world safe and less threatening because we can manipulate it
linguistically for our own individual pleasure. Through metaphor, jokes,
and rhythm we express our own creative freedom. All utterances or
writings, of whatever kind, are by this criterion poetic' in so far as thèy
appeal to our fundamental instinct for play.
iv. The textual function
t 1s in a way the most purely linguistic function in that it relates to
human ability to construct texts out of. their utterances and wriungs.
Michacl Halliday calls it the textual function'. We can see it as usins
language to bring texus into being, When we speak or write, we don't
normally conline ourselves to single phrases or sentences, we siring tnesc
LOgether to make a connected sequence. And there are words, in nula
language which are particularly designed to enable them to do that.