FUNCTIONS OF A

LANGUAGE IN A SOCIETY
• Language is basically a kind of tool through
which we perform some functions. For one
function we have one language, for another
we have another language.
• The first aspect with which we make
connection between society and language is
its Function. A language is there to perform
function and function is there in society.
• Language is a societal thing.
Societies establish, makeup and
change languages.
• Halliday proposes a theory of
metafunctions of language, that
is, language has ideational,
interpersonal and textual
functions.

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 Ideational function
• Ideational function constructs a model of
experience as well as logical relation.
• ideational function refers to the
conceptualization process involved in our
mental activities. Language develops ideas. It
makes us to have certain types of ideas in
mind.
 Interpersonal function
• Interpersonal function enacts social
relationship (the relationship between human
beings). We make relationships through
language.
 Textual function
• Textual function creates relevance to the
context.
• It refers to our ability to create long utterances
or piece of writing. Whenever we feel to write
something we need a language.
• Halliday then elaborates these three
categories into seven sub categories
• In his earlier works, Halliday proposed seven
categories of language functions by observing
child language development:
– Instrumental
– Regulatory
– Representational
– Interactional
– Personal
– Heuristic
– Imaginative

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• Instrumental function the way an individual
satisfies the need by asking for something.
E.g., “I want”
• Language is an instrument for getting
education
• Regulatory means controlling behavior. (do this)
• It means administrative function of a language
• Representational: it is the use of language to make
statements, convey fact and knowledge, explain or
report i.e., to represent realities as we se it.
• Interactional: we interact with one another through
language.
• Personal: language perform some personal functions
• Heuristic means creating something new. A language
has the ability of generating our own individual
thinking. Poets and writers creates new things
because of their knowledge of things.
• Imaginative: language enables us to imagine
different things. The more you have a knowledge of
a language, the more you can imagine different
things.
• Representational

• Heuristic ideational

• Imagination
Personal
interpersonal
interactional
• Instrumental
Textual
• Regulatory
• Still other classifications employ different
categories and use different terms, but all
share a lot in common about the basic
functions of language.
– Below is a summary of the major functions of
language.

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1. Informative function
• Language is the instrument of thought and
people often feel need to speak their
thoughts aloud. The use of language to
record the facts is a prerequisite of social
development. The informative function is
indeed a crucial function of language.
– It is also called ideational function in the
framework of functional grammar.

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• Halliday notes that
– “Language serves for the expression of ‘content’:
that is, of the speaker's experience of the real
world, including the inner world of his own
consciousness. ... In serving this function,
language also gives structure to experience, and
helps to determine our way of looking at things,
so that it requires some intellectual effort to see
them in any other way than that which our
language suggests to us”.

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2. Interpersonal function
• By far the most important sociological use of
language, and by which people establish and
maintain their status in a society.
• In the framework of functional grammar, the
interpersonal function is concerned with
interaction between the addresser and
addressee in the discourse situation and the
addresser's attitude toward what he speaks
or writes about.
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• For example, the ways in
which people address
others and refer to
themselves (e.g. Dear Sir,
Dear Professor, Johnny,
yours, your obedient
servant) indicate the
various grades of
interpersonal relations.

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• Attached to the interpersonal function is its
function of expressing identity. For example,
– the chanting of a crowd at a football match,
– the shouting of names or slogans at public
meetings,
– the stage-managed audience reactions to TV
game shows
– They all signal who we are and where we belong.

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• Language marks our identity,
physically in terms of age,
sex, and voiceprints;
psychologically in terms of
language, personality and
intelligence; geographically
in terms of accents and
dialects; ethnically and
socially in terms of social
stratification, class, status,
role, solidarity and distance.
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• The interpersonal function is such a broad
category that it is often discussed under
various other terms as in the following
performative, emotive, expressive and phatic
functions of language. They seem to
emphasize different aspects of the
interpersonal function.

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3. Performative function
• The performative function of language is
primarily to change the social status of
persons, as in marriage ceremonies, the
sentencing of criminals, the blessing of
children, the naming of a ship at a launching
ceremony, and the cursing of enemies.
– The kind of language employed in performative
verbal acts is usually quite formal and even
ritualized.

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4. Emotive function
• The emotive function of language is one of
the most powerful uses of language because
it is crucial in changing the emotional status
of an audience for or against someone or
something.
• It is a means of getting rid of our nervous
energy when we are under stress, e.g. swear
words, involuntary verbal reactions to a piece
of art or scenery; conventional
words/phrases, e.g.
– God, My, Damn it, What a sight, Wow, Ugh, Oh.
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• It is also discussed under the term expressive
function. The expressive function can often
be entirely personal and totally without any
implication of communication to others.
– For example, a man may say Ouch! after striking
a fingernail with a hammer, or he may mutter
Damn when realizing that he has forgotten an
appointment.

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• Exclamations such as Man! Oh boy! and
Hurrah! are usually uttered without any
purpose of communicating to others, but as
essentially a verbal response to a person's
own feelings.
– Such expressive utterances can also be a
communal response of a group of people who
reinforce one another's expressive use of
language to show their solidarity.

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5. Phatic communion
• Phatic communion refers to the
social interaction of language,
originating from Malinowski's study
of the functions of language
performed by Trobriand Islanders.
For example,
 Mrs. P sneezes violently.
 Mrs. Q: Bless you.
 Mrs. P: Thank you.

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• We all use such small, seemingly meaningless
expressions to maintain a comfortable
relationship between people without
involving any factual content.
– Ritual exchanges about health or weather such
as Good morning, God bless you, Nice day often
state the obvious. Yet they indicate that a
channel of communication is open if it should be
needed.

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• Broadly speaking, this function refers to
expressions that help define and maintain
interpersonal relations, such as slang, jokes,
jargons, ritualistic exchanges, switches to
social and regional dialects.
– We have to learn a large repertoire of such
usages if we are to interact comfortably with
different people.

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6. Recreational function
• The recreational function of a language is
often overlooked because it seems so
restrictive in purpose and supposedly so
limited in usefulness.
• However, no one will deny the use of
language for the sheer joy of using it, such as
a baby's babbling or a chanter's chanting.

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• In the Latin and Islamic worlds as
well as in some areas of China, there
is widespread use of verbal dueling,
in which one singer begins a song of
usually few lines and challenges his
opponent to continue the content or
provide a rejoinder in a similar
rhythm and rhyme scheme.
– Such verbal duels may last for a few
hours and is performed for the sheer
joy of playing on language.

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• If you observe a children’s play, you will find
the power of sound. Sometimes even
nonsensical lyrics perform a recreational
function in the game:
– the repetitive rhythms help to control the game,
and the children plainly take great delight in it.
Adults also have their way to appreciate
language for its own sake.

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 Functions of English Language in Pakistan

• At present English in Pakistan has become a part

and parcel of our professional life. It has taken its
footing in nearly all the walks of life. English is
now, what David Crystal calls as ‘an associated
official language’ (Crystal: 1997) in Pakistan.

• To understand the role of English in Pakistan, let

us describe its functions through the following
four factors proposed by Kachru in 1982.
1. Regulatory (Administration)
2. Instrumental (Education)
3. Inter-personal (Personal Communication)
4. Creative (literature)
 Functions of English Language in Pakistan

1. Regulatory function:
• Though according to the constitution 1973,
article 251 A, Urdu has to be made as the official
language of the country but the constitution of
Pakistan itself is codified in English which clearly
speaks about the regulatory function of English
language in Pakistan.
• English is the language of parliament, law
courts, civil and military bureaucracy. Since 1971
the court proceedings at all levels are permitted
in Urdu, yet, except the Shariat Court, the judges
feel it obligatory to write decisions in English.
 Functions of English Language in Pakistan

1. Regulatory function:
• At administrative level, in each and every sphere of the
country, English has mainly been used as a medium of
instruction. All the administrative documents at state or
public level these days emanate in English language. To sum
up the issue of regularity functions of English in Pakistan, Haq
in 1983 said:
• “the anchorage of English in Pakistan is that the constitution
of Pakistan is codified in English. As a consequence, judgment
and precedence, rules and regulations, orders and
instructions, standing procedures and mechanisms of the
functioning of the state and major policy documents of the
federal and provincial governments are in English;
information, technological, economic, sociological and
statistical, is also largely available in English”. (Haq: 1983)
 Functions of English Language in Pakistan

2. Instrumental function:
• Since the establishment of Pakistan, English language
has been playing a pivotal role in the education
system of Pakistan. In the start, it was introduced as
a compulsory subject which with the passage of time
has been instilled into the vary basics of our
education system.
• English language, due to its effectiveness in
educational spheres, has infact divided our education
system at primary level by giving birth to
phenomenon of English Medium schools and Urdu
medium schools. At secondary and tertiary level, it
dominates every field of our education system.
 Functions of English Language in Pakistan

2. Instrumental function:
• Though, government at large has not been able to post it as a
medium of instruction yet, a huge population of our
educational institutions used it as a medium of instruction.
• At secondary and tertiary level, the use of English has been
encouraged at large. And students are figured to perform
effectively in English language.
• Books, study materials, resource materials and research
publications emanate in English language.
• Constant educational policies are designed and redesigned to
make the learning of English language conducive at all levels.
• Syllabus, teaching methodologies and assessment criteria also
laid emphasis on English language.
 Functions of English Language in Pakistan

3. Inter-Personal function:
• According to Nida & Wonderley: 1975, at
inter-personal level, a language may function
for:
a. In-Group Communication
b. Out-Group Communication
c. Communication involving specialized
information
 Functions of English Language in Pakistan

3. Inter-Personal function:
• Till 1971, English had been used by the bureaucracy
for ‘out-group communication’ which with the
passage of time had then been used for specialized
information though at that time, a very small
minority used it for personal communication.
• But since 1981, apart from ‘out-group
communication’ and ‘specialized information’, the
‘in-group communication’ has largely developed the
use of English language.
• People, with the arrival of computer, internet, cable
network and foreign elements, build up the habit of
using English at public level.
 Functions of English Language in Pakistan

3. Inter-Personal function:
• The exposure which they have trough internet
or cable network encourage them to inculcate
this language into their ‘in-group
communication’.
• The use of this language at public level has
been considered as a mark of higher social
status.
 Functions of English Language in Pakistan

4. Creative function:
• English is used more for writing than in speech in
Pakistan. The usage of English language in Pakistan has
induced the writers of our country to express
themselves in English language.
• Though this function of English is restricted in Pakistan
yet, our country does have some writers of English who
are internationally renowned. But the peculiar political
circumstances of our country have forced many of
them to live in self-exile.
• Larger section of books written in English language by
Pakistani writers is related to politics but the number
of English poets and story writers is on the increase
too.
 Functions of English Language in Pakistan
4. Creative function:
• Oxford University Press Karachi publishes English books which
includes new writers and poets every year which includes
some imminent Pakistani English writers like Tariq Rehman,
Shaista Ikramullah, Dr. Riaz Hassan, Khalid bin Sayyed, A.A. K.
Niazi, Kamal Matinuddin, Syeda Saiyidain, Iqbal Ahmed and
many more.
• The following excerpt from the introductory portion of the
catalogue of an Oxford University Press Pakistan 2001
advocates the increase in English writings since 1971:
“As late as the 70’s or even 80’s, one to five locally books
produced new books were brought per year. Now its six titles
per month! In the Golden Jubilee year, The Jubilee series
alone numbered no less than 36 books, many of them
specially commissioned”. (Introduction to Academic and
General Books: Catalogue: 2001, OUP, Karachi)