Roman Jakobson defined six functions of language (or communication functions), according to which an effective act of verbal communication can be described. Each of the functions has an associated factor. For this work, Jakobson was influenced by

Karl Bühler Karl Ludwig Bühler (27 May 1879 – 24 October 1963) was a German psychologist and linguist. In psychology he is known for his work in gestalt psychology, and he was one of the founders of the Würzburg School of psychology. In linguistics he i ...

organon model The organon model is a model of communication by German psychologist and linguist Karl Ludwig Bühler (1879 – 1963). It was published in German in 1934. and not translated into English until 1990. In it he defined the functions of communicatio ...

, to which he added the poetic, phatic and metalingual functions.

The six functions of language

* The ''referential function'': corresponds to the factor of

Context Context may refer to: * Context (language use), the relevant constraints of the communicative situation that influence language use, language variation, and discourse summary Computing * Context (computing), the virtual environment required to su ...

and describes a situation, object or mental state. The descriptive statements of the referential function can consist of both definite descriptions and

deictic In linguistics, deixis (, ) is the use of general words and phrases to refer to a specific time, place, or person in context, e.g., the words ''tomorrow'', ''there'', and ''they''. Words are deictic if their semantic meaning is fixed but their de ...

words, e.g. "The autumn leaves have all fallen now." Similarly, the referential function is associated with an element whose true value is under questioning especially when the truth value is identical in both the real and assumptive universe. * The ''poetic function'': focuses on "the message for its own sake" (how the code is used) and is the operative function in poetry as well as slogans. * The ''emotive'' ''function'': relates to the Addresser (sender) and is best exemplified by

interjections An interjection is a word or expression that occurs as an utterance on its own and expresses a spontaneous feeling or reaction. It is a diverse category, encompassing many different parts of speech, such as exclamations ''(ouch!'', ''wow!''), curse ...

and other sound changes that do not alter the denotative meaning of an

utterance In spoken language analysis, an utterance is a continuous piece of speech, often beginning and ending with a clear pause. In the case of oral languages, it is generally, but not always, bounded by silence. Utterances do not exist in written langu ...

but do add information about the Addresser's (speaker's) internal state, e.g. "Wow, what a view!" Whether a person is experiencing feelings of happiness, sadness, grief or otherwise, they use this function to express themselves. * The ''conative function'': engages the Addressee (receiver) directly and is best illustrated by

vocative In grammar, the vocative Grammatical case, case (list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated ) is a grammatical case which is used for a noun that identifies a person (animal, object, etc.) being addressed, or occasionally for the noun modifiers ...

s and imperatives, e.g. "Tom! Come inside and eat!" * The '' phatic function'': is language for the sake of interaction and is therefore associated with the Contact/Channel factor. The Phatic Function can be observed in greetings and casual discussions of the weather, particularly with strangers. It also provides the keys to open, maintain, verify or close the communication channel: "Hello?", "Ok?", "Hummm", "Bye"... * The metalingual (alternatively called "metalinguistic" or "reflexive") function: is the use of language (what Jakobson calls "Code") to discuss or describe itself.

Notes

References

Bibliography

* * * {{cite book , last=Sebeok , first=Thomas Albert , author-link=Thomas Albert Sebeok , title=Style in language , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cbY6AAAAMAAJ , editor-last=Jakobson , editor-first=Roman , editor-link=Roman Jakobson , chapter=Closing statements: Linguistics and Poetics , chapter-url=https://monoskop.org/images/8/84/Jakobson_Roman_1960_Closing_statement_Linguistics_and_Poetics.pdf , publisher=

M.I.T. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...

, location=New-York , year=1960 , pages=470 Theories of language Information theory