Tema-1 “ LANGUAGE AS COMMUNICATION: ORAL AND WRITTEN ...

MALINOWSKY (1844-1942) termed the third use of language we are studying “phatic
communication”. He used it to refere to the social function of language, which arises out of the basic
human need to signal friendship, or, at least, lack of enmity. If someone does not say hello to you when hi
is supposed to, you may think hi is hostile. In these cases the sole function of language is to maintain a
comfortable relationship between people, to provide a means of avoiding an embarrassing situation. Phatic
communication, however, is far from universal, some cultures prefer silence, eg, the Aritama of
Colombia.
The fourth function we may find is based on phonetic properties. The rhythmical litanies of
religious groups, the presuasive cadences of political speechmaking, the dialogue chants used by prisoner
or soldiers have only one apparent reason: people take delight in them. They can only be explained by a
universal desire to exploit the sonic potential of language.
The fith function is the performative one. A performative sentence ins an utterance that performs
an act. This use occurs in the naming of a ship at a launching ceremony, or when a priest baptizes a child.
We may also finde other functions such as:
- recording facts.
- Instrument of thought
- Expression of regional, social, educational, sexual or occupational identity.
The British linguist HALLIDAY grouped all these functions into three metafunctions, shich are the
manifestation in the linguistic system of the two veryu general purposes shich underlie all uses of
language combine whith the rhird component (textual) shich brethes relevance into the other two.
1.- The ideational function is to organize the speaker’s or writer’s experience of the real or imaginary
world, i.e. language refers to real or imagined persons, things, actions, events, states,etc.