1.5 Functions of language
As is proposed by Jacobson, language has six functions:
1. Referential: to convey message and information;
2. Poetic: to indulge in language for its own sake;
3. Emotive: to express attitudes, feelings and emotions;
4. Conative: to persuade and influence others through
commands and entreaties;
5. Phatic: to establish communion with others;
6. Metalingual: to clear up intentions, words and meanings.
What is contextualism?
“Contextualism” is based on the presumption that one can
derive meaning from, or reduce it to, observable context: the
“situational context” and the “linguistic context”. Every
utterance occurs in a particular spatial-temporal situation,
as the following factors are related to the situational context:
(1) the speaker and the hearer; (2) the actions they are
performing at the time; (3) various external objects and events;
(4) deictic features. The “linguistic context” is another
aspect of contextualism. It considers the probability of one
word’s co-occurrence or collocation with another, which forms
part of the meaning, and an important factor in communication.