Functions of the

English language
The Purpose of Language

1.
2.
3.

4.

The Purpose of Language

A means of conveying information
An instrument of action
To maintain social relationships-allows us to make and keep friends.
This function is usually more
informal than others.
Acting as a marker of groupsestablishing that the people
involved in the conversation are
involved, marking them as a group.
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The Purpose of Language

5.

As an instrument of cognitive and

conceptual development--the power
of language to influence thinking.
This is why we have many words that
mean basically the same thing,
because they all have slight
differences or are used in different
circumstances .

6. As an art form, language can be

purposed towards beauty for
beauty's sake.
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Functions of Language
1. Informative language function
=> the communication of information.
a. The informative function affirms or
denies propositions, as in science.
b. This function is used to describe the
world or reason about it (e.g..,
whether a state of affairs is true or
false).
c. These sentences have a truth value;
hence, they are important for logic.

Functions of Language
2. 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 is one of the best examples .
b. Two main aspects are generally noted:
(1) to evoke certain feelings and (2) to
express feelings.
c. Expressive discourse,quaexpressive
discourse, is best regarded as neither
true or false.
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Functions of Language

3. Directive language function

language used for the purpose of
causing (or preventing) overt actions.
a. The directive function is most
commonly found in commands and
requests.
b. Directive language is not normally
considered true or false (although a
logic of commands have been
developed).
a. Example: "Close the windows."
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Remember
It is rare for discourse just to serve only
one function.
(logical) clarity is required, but, at the
same time, ease of expression often
demands some expression of attitudes.
Most ordinary kinds of discourse is
mixed .

Other uses of
language

Ceremonial--probably something quite

different from simply mixing the expressive
and directive language functions.
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.
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Other uses of language

Phaticlanguage: "Elevator talk" and
street-corner conversations. Note
the transition to behavior, as in body
language.

Forms of Language
(types of sentences)
Much discourse serves all three
functions one cannot always identify the form
with the function.
Consider this chart for the following
possibilities.

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importance of the differentiation

The difference of functions is the correct

evaluation of a passage requires a knowledge
of the functions relevant to the situation.
1. A person who says to the waiter, "I would
like a cup of coffee," is not just reporting a
psychological state of affairs. I.e., it would be
inappropriate for the waiter to respond with,
"Speaking of things I would like, how about a
BMW?
2. Other things being equal, a biology text is
predominately informative, a novel is
predominately expressive, but a logic or
mathematics text is directive.
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Literal and Emotive Meaning

single words or short phrases can exhibit
the distinction between purely
informative and partially expressive uses
of language.
Many of the most common words and
phrases of any language have both a
literal or descriptive meaning that refers
to the way things are and an
emotive meaningthat expresses some
(positive or negative) feeling about them.
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Literal and Emotive Meaning

This is a natural function of ordinary
language, of course. We often do wish
to convey some portion of our feelings
along with information .
There is a good deal of poetry in
everyday communication, and poetry
without emotive meaning is pretty dull.
primarily interested in establishing the
truth the use of words laden with
emotive meaning can easily distract us
from our purpose.
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In conclusion..
most directly helpful to eliminate
emotive meaning entirely whenever
we can. Although it isn't always easy
to achieve emotively neutral
language in every instance, and the
result often lacks the colourful
character of our usual public
discourse, it is worth the trouble, as
it makes it much easier to arrive at a
settled understanding of what is true.
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COMMUNICATION
PROCESS
Communicationis the process of transmitting and
receiving of information throughverbalor
nonverbal behavior.

communicationmust be the intention of

conveying a message. A two-way process
between two parties.
Oral-Aural Communication
Written-Visual Communication.

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Communication
Oral-aural communication
The communiative skills involved are
speaking and listening,the productive
and receptive skills.
Written-Visual Communication
Writing and reading, the productive
and receptive skills.

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WHY WE COMMUNICATE
To initiate some action
To impart information, ideas, attitudes,
beliefs or feelings
To establish, acknowledge or maintain
links or relations with other people.

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HOW WE COMMUNICATE
Communicationcycle
Effectivecommunicationis a two-way
process, perhaps best expressed as a
cycle. Signals or messages are sent
by the communicator and received by
the other party. He sends back some
form of confirmation that the message
has been received and understood:
this is called feedback.
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Stages ofCommunicationProcess

SENDERS ACTIVITY
Impulse to communicate
Encoding the Message
Relay of Message
RECEIVERS ACTIVITY
Decoding the Message
Feedback

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Communicative process
The information source (brain) emits
a message which is encoded for
transmission.
This message passes through the
transmitter ( the mouth) to a receiver
(the ear) which then sends it to the
destination (the brain) for decoding .

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VARIABLES OF
COMMUNICATION

COMMUNIATION

NON-VOCAL

VOCAL

VISUAL
SPEECH

TACTILE

OLFACTORY

PHYSICAL
(KINETIC)

PHYSIOLOGICAL
PARALINGUISTIC
EFFECTS

NON-SPEECH

EMOTION
REFLEXES

VOICE QUALITY
MARKERS
DIFFERENCES

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NON-VOCAL
Simple & basic.
eg:someone stares at you with wide
open eyes just as you enter a room,
you will wonder whether you have
done something wrong or wearing
something odd,etc.
No exchange of words at all to
communicate this kind of message.
Communication via the eyes
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NON-VOCAL
Tactile touch of hand
Olfactory twitching of the nose
Kinetic actual body movement =
body language.
All are modes of communication
which send messages across to the
recipient with no voice involved.
Eg: sadness place hands on shoulder,
a hug
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Vocal communication
non-speech
Non -speech=> any kind of
communication which uses the vocal
cords but with no speech as such.
Types of non-speech modes =>
psychological reflexes, emotion
markers, voice-quality &
paralinguistic effects.

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non-speech modes
Psychological markers
eg: yawn / purposeful cough.
Indicate bored with conversation
Saying something wrong
Emotion markers
Universal modes of communication
indicate some kind of feeling.
Eg: a sigh/ a sob.
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non-speech modes
Voice quality differences
=>a raised voice by school discipline master

without saying anything but just

Mmm?
Raised intonation.
Voiced produced at the larynx. a whisper, to
indicate not to let anyone else hear or know.

Paralinguistic effects
--hiccups,belching,laughter ,humming..
Different cultures, have different
intrepretations.
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Types ofnonverbalcommunication

Proxemics
Orientation
Eye contact or gaze
Facial expression
Gesture, especially use of hands and
arms
Dress
Posture
Paralanguage

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Proxemics

The study of how we handle the

space around us, especially in
relation to other people
Human beings are territorial!
We create for ourselves spaces that
belong to us and to which we try
carefully to control access

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Orientation
Closely linked to the concept of proxemics
The way in which people place themselves
relative to one another
When someone comes sits next to you, it
is generally seen as a much friendlier
(closeness) orientation than someone who
sits directly opposite (potentially
confrontational) to you.
Why do we feel uncomfortable when
people stand behind us?
Describe how a detective ask a
suspect of murder case.
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Eye Contact
Important way in which we communicate our
feelings towards other people
Initial eye contact to assess a stranger
Staring identified as threatening form or behaviour
If we staring at someone, their behaviour will
change, often becoming either defensive or at the
other extreme aggressive towards you
Deeply suspicious of people who cannot look us in
the eye; they are seen as shifty or people with
something to hide
Gazing look steadily; men gaze at women,
sometimes in intimidating way
Eye contact can be an index of the closeness of a
relationship that people share
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Facial Expression
We face other people when we talk
Facial expression is bound to be an important
indicator to other people of our attitudes,
state of mind and relationships to them
Human face has a complex arrangement of
muscles that allows us to produce a whole
range of different expressions, most of which
are an index of our feelings (happy, sad,
pain, etc.)
Smiling important facial gesture that
indicate that we pleased to see other people

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Gesture (Hands and arms)

Gestures, e.g: handshake
Changing their meanings over a period of
time
How to tell someone to be quiet in a library?
We use gesture when our voice engaged, e.g:
talking on the telephone, we used gesture to
tell another person to come and sit down
Many of the gestures are automatic. When
we speaking on the telephone, we often
make hand gestures
Gestures that we make for pushing people
away vs. drawing them towards us.
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Dress
Dress we combine items of clothing
and the appropriateness of certain
types of styles of dress to specific
situation.
Funeral people wear black or dark
coloured clothes as a symbol or
mourning ~ avoid colour clashes.
The clothes we wear make a
statement about ourselves ~
interpretation by other people
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Dress
Time dependent dress code
Office - formal
Relaxing or socialising casual
Initial judgments about people because of their
clothes
Dress one aspect of the physical appearance
Hairstyle, jewellery, make-up, body adornment
and body modification
Open for interpretation by other people

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Posture
The way in which we position our
bodies
Early age:
sit up straight, shoulder back
instruction heard at home or school

Upright posture people who have

confident (police, army)
Posture is another sign of the status
and role within society (army, police)
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Posture
Use posture as one means of
indicating to another person our
feelings of friendship or hostility
hands on hips confrontational and
hostile

Group imitating the postures of the

people they are with (mirroring,
postural congruence)
Cross legs, fold their arms
Reinforce group identities
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Paralanguage
Those utterances that we make when we are
speaking
When we speak, we make noise that arent words (um or
ah), we raise and lower voices, we pause, we stress some
words
Important aspect of the message when we are
communicating
E.g: The house is on fire ~statement

The house is on fire! ~ stressed

Voice intonation (pitch)- indicator of intention
Flow of voice

Consider following regional accents:

Johor/Kelantan/N.Sembilan/Penang
Do you have accent?
How this make you react to these accents?
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ISL
Prepare a 3-minute mime (non-verbal
communication) of a situation of your
choice for tutorial Week 3

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TUTORIAL WEEK 2
Group work:
Role play dialogue based on ISL
Week 1.
Identify the functions used.

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THE

END

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