Roman Jakobson Roman Osipovich Jakobson (, ; 18 July 1982) was a Russian linguist and literary theorist. A pioneer of structural linguistics, Jakobson was one of the most celebrated and influential linguists of the twentieth century. With Nikolai Trubetzk ...

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's organon model, to which he added the poetic, phatic and metalingual functions.

The six functions of language

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

context In semiotics, linguistics, sociology and anthropology, context refers to those objects or entities which surround a ''focal event'', in these disciplines typically a communicative event, of some kind. Context is "a frame that surrounds the event ...

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 words or phrases to refer to a particular time (e.g. ''then''), place (e.g. ''here''), or person (e.g. ''you'') relative to the context of the utterance. Deixis exists in all known natural languagesLyons, J ...

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, situation or reaction. It is a diverse category, with many different types, such as exclamations ''(ouch!'', ''wow!''), curses (''da ...

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, by one person, before or after which there is silence on the part of the person. In the case of oral language, spoken languages, it is generally, but not always, bounded ...

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 vocatives and imperatives, e.g. "Tom! Come inside and eat!" * The ''

phatic In linguistics, a phatic expression (, ) is a communication which primarily serves to establish or maintain social relationships. In other words, phatic expressions have mostly socio- pragmatic rather than semantic functions. They can be observed ...

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=Jakobson , first=Roman , author-link=Roman Jakobson , title=Style in language , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cbY6AAAAMAAJ , editor-last=Sebeok , editor-first=Thomas Albert , editor-link=Thomas Albert Sebeok , 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. , location=New-York , year=1960 , pages=470, isbn=978-0-262-69010-2 Theories of language Information theory