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in various ways according to the manifold patterns of sameness and
difference which various languages provide." (ibid, p5) This
structuralist approach to language in which the reality of thought and
meaning is emphasized, runs counter to pre-structuralist approaches
like Halliday's. Halliday looks on language as not simply a formal
system, but rather a system that exists to satisfy the communicative
needs of its users. He maintains that language has three general
functions: an ideational function, an interpersonal function, and a
textual function. The ideational function has two subfunctions: an
experiential function and a logical function. Language functions
experientially when it is used as a means of "representing the real
world as it is apprehended in our experience". (Halliday and Hassan,
1985, p19) Language functions logically when it is used to express
"fundamental logical relations". (ibid, p21). Language is not only a
"representation of reality, it is also a piece of interaction between
speaker and listener". (rhi.cl, p20) The interaction between speaker
and listener is what Halliday calls the interpersonal function of
language. Halliday, unlike structuralist linguists, does not divorce
language from the external world nor, like radical sceptics, does he
dissociate mind from reality.
Ogden and Richards, (1946, p227) list five functions of language:
(1) symbolization of reference; (2) expression of attitude to listener;
(3) expression of attitude to reference; (4) promotion of effects
intended; and (5) support of reference". They differentiate between
the symbolic and the emotive uses of language. In the symbolic use of
language attention is focused on the correctness and truthfulness
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