Nature & Functions of Language Flashcards
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What is MRFACTTS?
Mode, Register, Field, Authorial Intent/Audience, Context, Text Type, Tenor, and Setting
Mode definition
How the communication takes place, i.e. written, spoken, online
Register definition
The way people speak, informal to formal
Field definition
The subject area, the topic. Invovles set of related words.
Audience definition
The people participating in the discourse as well as the people that will read/listen to the discourse.
What is Cultural Context?
The rules of politeness/taboos, the values, attitude, beliefs of the speakers.
What is Situational Context?
Extralinguistic circumstances; the topics that influence the language being spoken.
Text Type definition
What the form of the text is, e.g. editorial, article, speech, etc.
Tenor definition
The relationship between the parties involved. The power and respect dynamics as well.
Setting definition
Where the interaction takes place, influences word choices even if other factors remain the same.
What is the Uniqueness of Language?
Human communication is different to all other animals. Charles Hockett wrote down some features that distinguished human language.
What is Spontaneity?
Humans begin speech naturally, and can begin it anywhere.
What is Displacement?
Humans can talk about anything from any point of time.
Why are humans different from animals?
Animals are stimulus-bound, they can only refer/react to present stimuli. Humans have displacement.
What is Convention?
Words are symbols with an agreed meaning.
What is Arbitrariness?
There’s no reason to call a thing anything, other than that we decided to.
What is Structure?
Language can be combined and recombined in a systematic way to create new things.
What is Creativity?
Human language is an open system. We can talk about anything, and make anything.
What is Cultural Transmission?
Humans hand down language from generation to generation. Children learn the languages spoken around them, regardless of their parent’s ethnicity.
What are the functions of language?
Proposed by Roman Jacobson, they are:
Referential, Emotive, Conative, Poetic, Phatic, and Metalinguistic.
Referential function
Shares only information for an intended audience, represented as factual.
e.g. The sky is blue.
Emotive function
Expresses emotions and desires, usually relating to the addresser themselves.
e.g. Ouch! That hurt!
Conative function
Usually questions, directions, and commands. It gets a reaction from the recipient (addressee).
e.g. Pass the salt. Please do it?
Poetic function
Aesthetic, manipulates the language in a creative way.
e.g. To eat, or not to eat? That is the question.
