Function of Language

Language, a global phenomenon, is a mark of identity and the

means of transmission of cultural heritage. Its dynamism and
fluidity are exemplified in politics, conflict resolution,
education, governance, religion, and many other areas of
human endeavour. Essentially, we can use language to do just
about anything because it is pivotal to man’s existence and
without it, the whole cosmos will grind to a [Link]
Language is the most important tool in communication
invented by human civilization . Language helps us to share
our thoughts, ideas, and understand each other .it’s hard to
over estimate the importance of language in our lives . Every
time we speak, we do it with a particular purpose. Sometimes
you want to deliver a certain Message, or express our feeling
. We use language to ask for help, or just to say joke.

Generally, there are five main functions of language, which

are informational functions, Emotive functions, Directive,
phatic,, and metalingusit functions. Any language is
determined by a number of factors, such as social
background, attitudes, and origin of the people. In everyday
life, we use different functions of language depending on the
situation.
Linguists and communication theorists
typically break these functions down into
the following primary categories:

• Informative (Representational) : This has to do with the context.

The function here is dealing with something contextual meaning. It

is “informative”. Informational functions of language is any

message that is constructed to convey information. It is the most

obvious functions of language as it is used to provide facts, indicate

things, and informations. It’s main purposes is to pass knowledge

from one person to another. . Informative language function is

essentially, the communication of information or ideas, factual

reports, personal beliefs, and knowledge claims, but the

informative language function also includes the communication of

erroneous, mistaken, imaginative, and deceptive information.

It’s usually occurs in statements which are sentences that express

affirm, or deny an account, whether the account is factual,
speculative, opinionated, false, or deceitful. Most informative
 sentences are declarative sentences with a subject-verb order such
as “The wind howls,” but they can be present in any type of
sentence: declarative, interrogative, imperative, or exclamatory.
This function is often used to describe the world or reason about it
e.g., whether a state of affairs has occurred or not, or what might
or might not have led to a situation or event.

• Emotive Functions: This function emphasizes the speaker

the emotions and their feelings to communicate. Danesi
(2004:106) describes this function thus: “The intent of the
addresser in constructing a message is emotive in the
sense that, no matter how literal the message might be, its
mode of delivery invariably involves the latent presence of
the addresser’s emotions, attitudes, social status, etc. The
emotive function of language is mainly used to express
emotions, feelings, and personal attitudes. It helps
speakers communicate what is going on inside their
emotional world, turning ordinary words into little
windows into feelings. It is also called the expressive
function because it helps people communicate emotions
such as happiness, sadness, anger, excitement, fear, or
 surprise. Geoffrey Leech noted that language can carry
emotional meaning and be used to show attitudes,
emotions, and personal reactions. The emotive function
helps speakers communicate feelings effectively. Scholars
such as Roman Jakobson, Karl Bühler, Geoffrey Leech, and
M.A.K. Halliday agree that the emotive function of
language mainly deals with expressing emotions and
personal feelings, making communication more expressive
and meaningful.

Directive Functions: The directive function of language refers

to the use of language to influence, direct, command,
persuade, advise, or request someone to do something. It
focuses on the receiver (listener or reader) and aims at getting
a response or action. Roman Jakobson referred to the directive
function as the conative function of language. According to
him, it is directed toward the receiver and is used to influence
behavior through commands, requests, instructions, or
persuasion. .According to scholars, the directive function of
Karl Bühler explained that one major function of language is
the appeal function, which is similar to the directive function.
According to him, language is used to appeal to or influence
the listener’s actions or [Link] is the use of
language to influence, guide, request, command, or persuade
the listener or reader to perform an action or respond in a
certain way.

• Phatic Functions: The phatic function of language refers to

the use of language for social interaction, maintaining
relationships, and creating friendly communication rather
than passing important information. It is used to start,
continue, or end conversations and maintain social
connection. Bronisław Malinowski introduced the idea of
“phatic communion.” According to him, some
conversations are not mainly for exchanging information
but for building social bonds and creating friendliness
among people. Halliday related phatic communication to
the interactional function of language, where language is
used to develop and maintain social relationships.
According to scholars, the phatic function of language is
the use of language to establish, maintain, or strengthen
social relationships and communication between people.
Scholars such as Roman Jakobson, Bronisław Malinowski,
and M.A.K. Halliday agree that the phatic function of
language is mainly used to maintain social contact, create
 friendliness, and keep communication flowing rather than
convey serious information. It is the small bridge that keeps
conversations alive.

• Metalinguistics function: This refers to any message that is

designed to indicate the code used. For example, “The
word noun is a noun.” Jakobson’s analysis suggests that
verbal discourse goes well beyond the function of simple
information transfer. It involves determining who says what
to whom; where and when it is said; and how and why it is
said; that is, it is motivated and shaped by the setting, the
message contents, the participants, and the goals of each
interlocutor. Discourse makes an emotional claim on
everyone in the social situation. When language is used to
speak about language, for example in a grammar or a
dictionary, the metalingual function has been employed.
Jakobson notes. Metalanguage is not only a necessary
scientific tool utilised by logicians and linguists. It comes
into play in our everyday language. We practise
metalanguage without realising the metalingual character
of our operations. Whenever the addresser and/or
addressee need to check up whether they use the same
code, speech is focused on the code: it performs a
METALINGUAL (i.e. glossing) function. He submits “Any
process of language learning, in particular child acquisition
of the mother tongue, makes wide use of such metalingual
operations; and aphasia may often be defined as a loss of
ability for metalingual operations.” Metalinguistic activity
may be unconscious and this often produces neologisms.

The above functions are the only point of view on

language. Certainly they are many other functions that
naturally fulfill, yet depending depending on approach to
this issue the number of functions and their names might
vary.

Conclusion
This examined language, discourse and the various
functions of language in discourse from the perspectives of
Halliday and Jakobson. We conclude that without language,
human endeavours would be impossible as language helps
in holding together the fabric of the society especially in the
aspect of human interaction and communication. Language
is basically a functional phenomenon. It is the fabric with
which discourse is woven and the discourse fabric that
language weaves is contingent on the specific context that
requires the fabric and this ultimately determines the
function of the discourse. In other words, a strong
relationship exists between language, which is the bedrock
of discourse, and discourse, which is language in use. We
use language in a particular context and it performs various
functions in discourse.