7. Jakobson's functions of language

Roman Jakobson defined six functions of language (or communication functions), according to which an effective act of verbal communication can be described.^[1] Each of the functions has an associated factor. For this work, Jakobson was influenced by Karl Bühler's Organon-Model.

The six factors of an effective verbal communication. To each one corresponds a communication function (not displayed in this picture).^[2

The six functions of language

The Referential Function 

corresponds to the factor of Context and describes a situation, object or mental state. The descriptive statements of the referential function can consist of both definite descriptions and deictic words, e.g. "The autumn leaves have all fallen now."

The Expressive (alternatively called "emotive" or "affective") Function 

relates to the Addresser and is best exemplified by interjections and other sound changes that do not alter the denotative meaning of an utterance but do add information about the Addresser's (speaker's) internal state, e.g. "Wow, what a view!"

The Conative Function engages the Addressee directly and is best illustrated by vocatives and imperatives, e.g. "Tom! Come inside and eat!"

The Poetic Function focuses on "the message for its own sake"^[3] and is the operative function in poetry as well as slogans.

The Phatic Function  is language for the sake of interaction and is therefore associated with the Contact factor. The Phatic Function can be observed in greetings and casual discussions of the weather, particularly with strangers.

The Metalingual (alternatively called "metalinguistic" or "reflexive") Function is the use of language (what Jakobson calls "Code") to discuss or describe itself.

8. MEANINGS OF LINGUISTIC UNITSa) Denotative meaning of the word. Words are not limited to one single meaning. Most words have multiple meanings, which are categorized as either denotative or connotative. The denotation of a word is its explicit definition as listed in a dictionary. Let’s use the word “home” as an example. The denotative or literal meaning of “home” is “ a place where one lives; a residence.” Hint: Denotation, denotative, definition, and dictionary all start with the letter ‘D.

The expressiveness of language, however, comes from the other type of word meaning—connotation, or the association or set of associations that a word usually brings to mind . The connotative meaning of “home” is a place of security, comfort, and family. When Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz says, “There’s no place like home,” she’s not referring to its denotation, but the emotions “home” evokes for her and most people.

9. Components of Connotation. Lexical meaning is a means by which a word-form is made to express a definite concept. Lexical meaning refers the mind to some concrete concept, phenomenon, or thing of objective reality, whether real or imaginary. Lexical meaning of any word presents a very complicated unity consisting of connotative and denotative meanings. Denotative (logical) meaning is connected with the extralinguistic reality. It is the precise naming of a feature of the idea, phenomenon, or object, the name by which we recognize the whole of the concept.

Connotative meaning is connected with the conditions and participants of communication. Connotation comprises four components: emotive, appraising, expressive and stylistic. If denotation is obligatory in any word, connotation is optional. All four components of connotation can be acting together, or in different combinations or can be entirely absent.

Emotional component of meaning can be usual or occasional. A word possesses emotional component of meaning if it expresses any emotion or feeling. Emotional component appears on the basis of logical meaning but tends to oust the logical meaning or modify it (f.e. honey). We should not confuse emotional meaning of the word with the words which name emotions (fear, delight, cheerful) or arouse associations because of the denotative meaning (death, tears). But we should pay attention to the amount of words in the text.

Appraising component appears when the word expresses positive or negative attitude to the object it names. Appraising component is closely connected with logical and can be the part of the dictionary meaning of the word (sneak – move silently and secretly for a bad purpose)

10. A functional style of language is a system of interrelated language means which serves a definite aim in communication.

In the English literary standard Galperin distinguishes the followingmajor functional styles (FS): belles-lettres; publicistic literature; newspaper; scientific prose; official documents.

The belles-lettres FS has the following substyles: style of poetry; of emotive prose; of drama. The publicistic FS comprises the following substyles: style of essays; of oratory; of feature articles in newspapers and journals.

The newspaper FS falls into: style of brief news items and communiqu?s; of newspaper headlines; of notices and advertisements.

The scientific prose FS also has three divisions: style of humanitarian sciences; of ‘exact’ sciences; of military documents.

The official documents FS can be divided into four varieties: style of diplomatic documents; of business documents; of legal documents; of military documents. The Problem of Colloquial Style . Galperin denies the existence of this functional style. He thinks that functional style can be singled out in the written variety of language. He defines the style as the result of a deliberate careful selection of language means which in their correlation constitute this style. Maltzev thinks that style is a choice but this choice is very often done unconsciously, spontaneously He thinks that the main aim of functional style is to facilitate a communication in a certain sphere of discourse. But the rigid lay outs of business and official letters practically exclude the possibility of deliberate, careful selection. One more example the compression in the newspapers headlines where there is a tendency to abbreviate language. There's a descrepancy in Galperin's theory. One of the substyles of the publicistic style is oratory which is its oral subdivision. Kuznetz and Skrebnev give the definitions of bookish and colloquial styles. The bookish style is a style of a highly polished nature that reflects the norm of the national literary language. The bookish style may be used not only in the written speech but in oral, official talk. Colloquial style is the type of speech which is used in situation that allows certain deviations from the rigid pattern of literary speech used not only in a private conversation, but also in private correspondence. So the style is applicable both to the written and oral varieties of the terms "colloquial" and "bookish" don't exactly correspond to the oral and written forms of speech. Maltzev suggests terms "formal" and "informal" and states that colloquial style is the part of informal variety of English which is used orally in conversation.