Functions/ Purposes of

Communicative Language

Introduction
Everything serves a purpose/function,so
does communicative language.
A lot of what we say is for a specific purpose.
Whether we are apologizing, expressing a
wish or asking permission, we use language
to fulfill that purpose. Each purpose can be
known as language purpose.

Definition of Communicative
language
Sauvignon describes a language function as the
use to which language is put, the purpose of an
utterance rather than the particular
grammatical farm an utterance takes
(sauvignon 1983)

The different functions of

communicative language
Language affords human beings the ability to communicate
anything they can imagine. As a tool, language is infinitely
flexible and can be put to multiple purposes. There are six
Functions of communicative Language:
Expressive Purpose
Informative purpose
Cognitive purpose
Poetic purpose
Phatic purpose
Metalinguistic purpose

The Expressive Purpose

Language can be used to express ones feelings,
ideas or attitudes, without necessarily taking a
reader or listener into consideration. When
language is used in the ways, the speaker/ writer
is not trying to effect change in the audience or
elite response. He/ she is merely giving vent to
emotions or needs.
Diaries and journals are obvious examples of
language used for expressive purpose.

Examples of Expressive purpose

Clarifying or arranging ones ideas

Expressing ones thoughts or feelings (love, joy,
pleasure, happiness, surprise, likes and
Dislikes, satisfaction, disappointment, distress, pain,
anger, anguish, fear, anxiety, sorrow,
Frustration, annoyance at missed opportunities, etc.)
Expressing moral, intellectual, and social concerns
Expressing the everyday feelings of hunger, thirst,
fatigue, sleepiness, cold, and warmth

Informative purpose
Language in this case is employed with
the intention of conveying information
to others.
News broadcasts, a bulletin board at
school are all examples of language
being used for this purpose.

Example of Informative purpose

A textbook
A television guide
Advertisement of New movie
News broadcasts

Cognitive purpose
When language is used cognitively, it is with the
intention of affecting the audience in some way in
order to evoke some type of response.
When one uses language to persuade, entertain,
stir to anger or arouse sympathy, one is using
language cognitive purposes. Jokes, political
speeches and horror stories are different examples
of ways in which language can be used cognitively.

Examples of Cognitive purpose

accepting or refusing direction
making suggestions in which the speaker is included
persuading someone to change his/her point of view
requesting and granting permission
requesting information
asking for help and responding to a plea for help
forbidding someone to do something; issuing a command
giving and responding to instructions or directions
warning someone
discouraging someone from pursuing a course of action

Further example of cognitive

purpose
A descendant of Eric The Red, named
Rudolf the Red, was aruging with his wife
about the weather. His wife thought it was
going to be a nice day, and he thought it
was going to rain. Finally she asked him,
how he was so sure. He smiled at her, and
calmly said, Because Rudolf the Red
knows rain, dear.

Poetic purpose
Language used in literary, stylistic or
imaginative ways is poetic. The user focuses on
the structure and pattern of the language and
places emphasis on the manner in which
language is manipulated.
Language used for poetic purposes is not
necessarily done in verse. It is the way in which
the language is used, and not its form, that
indicates its poetic purpose.

Examples of Poetic purpose

discussing a poem, a story, a text, an advertisement, a
piece of music, a play, a painting, a Film, a TV program,
etc.
Story-telling, narrating events
experiencing and/or discussing a simulation (e.g., of an
historical event)
Expanding ideas suggested by others or by a piece of
reading
creating rhymes, poetry, stories, plays, or scripts
recombining familiar dialogues or passages creatively

Phatic purpose
Sometimes language is used to establish contact among
people. This use of language is most obvious in spoken
communication. Language used for phatic purposes
does not necessarily seek to generate meaningful
response.
For example when we greet eachother by saying hello
or good morning we are using language to maintain
social costom. We say good morning automatically as
a greeting even though a thunderstorm is raging. In the
same way, you would not expect your cheerful How you
doing? to be responded with a litany (repetition) of all
the things that are going wrong with their lives.

Examples or Phatic purpose

Greetings and leave-takings
Introducing people to others
Identifying oneself to others
Expressing joy at anothers success (or disappointment
at anothers misfortune)
Expressing concern for other peoples welfare

Metalinguistic purpose
This is the use of language to comment
on, refer to or discuss language itself.
A critique of your friends essay or
speech is metalinguistic, so is the blurb
on the back of a novel. When you use
language to consider language your
purpose is metalinguistic.

Examples of Metalinguistic
purpose
The judging of essays for an essay competiton
The analysising of prose,poems and dramas in literature
The judging or critizing on ones reading skills
The learning of spelling,grammar tenses and sentence
structure
Answering comprehension questions based on a written
piece of work (prose,poem or drama).

Conclusion
The multiple purposes to which
language can be put make it the most
vulnerable tool of communication at our
disposal. In order to master the art of
communication it is important to master
the use of language for all its purpose.

Biblography
Simon Veronica,Sandra Osborne.Communication Studies
for Cape Examinations.Oxford:Macmillan Publishers
Limited,2009.
Subramanian Thiru R. Sankara,etal.Communicative
English for Higher Secondary-First Year. Chennai: Web
Offset,2004.