UNIT 28.

LINGUISTIC MACROFUNCTIONS

Communication has many purposes, including the exchange of information,

the creation and maintenance of social relationships, the negotiation of
status and social roles, as well as deciding on and carrying out joint actions.
Throughout all of these functions though, we can say that the primary
purpose of communication in our own language is probably social.

1. THE COMMUNICATION PROCESS

1.1. Types of communication
Communication process is quite complex. We differentiate verbal and
non-verbal, oral and written, formal and informal, intentional and
unintentional communication. In addition, there is human and animal
communication, and nowadays we may also refer to human- computer
communication.

1.2. Definition of communication

Communication is understood as the exchange and negotiation of
information between at least two individuals through the use of verbal and
non-verbal symbols, oral and written. Furthermore, such information is never
permanently worked out nor fixed but it is constantly changing and qualified
by such factors as further information, context of communication, choice of
language forms, and non-verbal behaviour. In this sense, communication
involves the continuous evaluation and negotiation of meaning on the part
of the participants. Finally, it is assumed that authentic communication
involves a ‘reduction of uncertainty’ on behalf of the participants.

1.3. Characteristics of communication

The nature of this communication process is understood to have
general characteristics:
 it is a form of social interaction.
 it involves a high degree of unpredictability and creativity.
 it takes place in discourse and sociocultural context.
 it is carried out under limiting psychological and other conditions such
as memory constraints, fatigue and distractions.
 it always has a purpose (to establish social relations, to persuade,
 etc)
 it involves authentic, as opposed to text book-contrived language.
 it is judged as successful or not on the basis of actual outcome.

1.4. Elements in the communication process

One of the most productive schematic models of a communication
system emerged from R. Jakobson (1960). Its clarity has made it become
the best-known model to be followed on language theory. Jakobson states
that all acts of communication, written or oral, are based on six
constituent elements associated with one of the six functions of language
he proposed. So according to him, any particular act of communication
takes place in a situational context, and it involves a sender and a
receiver. It further involves a message which the sender transmits and
which the receiver interprets. The message is formulated in a particular
code, and sender and receiver must be connected by a channel through
which the message is sent. In acoustic communication it consists of air, in
written communication of paper or other writing materials.

2. FUNCTIONS OF LANGUAGE

As a system of communication, language has many functions, and it is

part of our competence as speakers not only to know how to produce
utterances, but also how to use them in different situations of our social life.
There have been many attempts to categorize the functions of language
according to different perspectives or disciplines. Historically speaking,
Plato was said to be the first to propose a definition of language, and
according to it, language primarily serves the purpose of communication, as
it is a linguistic tool.

2.1. Malinowski: pragmatic and ritual functions

Some centuries later, an anthropological perspective, brought about by
B. Malinowski in his book The problem of Meaning in Primitive Languages
(1923) states that language has only two main purposes: pragmatic and
ritual. For him, the pragmatic function refers to the practical use of
language, either active by means of speech or narrative by means of written
text. The ritual function is concerned with the use of language associated to
ceremonies, and also referred as magic.
2.2. Karl Bühler: expressive, conative and representational functions
Psychologist Karl Bühler (1923) distinguished three language
functions: the expressive function refers to the speaker’s attitude towards
the message, the referent and the context of communication. By means of
the conative function, the message attempts to modify the receptive
subject’s behaviour, attitude... and it is mainly represented by imperatives
and vocatives. The representational function relates the message to the
reality that the subjects share.

2.3. Jakobson: expressive, conative, representational, phatic,

metalinguistic and poetic functions
Bühler’s scheme was adopted by the Prague School and later extended
by Roman Jakobson. As we have stated before, Jakobson considers that all
acts of communication are based on six constituent elements associated
with the six functions of language. So apart from the 3 functions mentioned
by Bühler he added 3 more: the phatic, which helps to establish contact
between sender and receiver and it often conveys ritualised formulae, eg.
‘Hello, how do you do? Nice weather, isn’t it?’ The metalinguistic deals
with the verbal code itself. The speaker and the receiver need to check
whether they are using the same code. eg: ‘Do you understand?’ Or ‘Sorry,
what did you say?’ The poetic function, which focuses on the message for
its own sake. It deals with the message as a signifier within a decorative or
aesthetic function by rhetorical figures, for example.

2.4. Halliday: ideational, interpersonal and textual functions

In 1985, Halliday emphasizes the functions of language in use by
giving prominence to a social mode of expression, as register influences the
selection from a language’s system. For Halliday, there are three macro-
functions that, in combination, provide the basic functions on learning a
foreign language: the ideational, which refers to the expression of content:
speaker’s experience of the world; the interpersonal: establishing and
maintaining social relations; and the textual: establishing cohesive
relations in the sentences of the discourse: linking words and relating
meaning to context.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
COUNCIL OF EUROPE. (1998). ‘Modern Languages: Learning, Teaching,
Assessment. A Common European Framework of Reference’. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
CRYSTAL, David. (1985). ‘Linguistics’. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
HALLIDAY, M. (1987). ‘Spoken and Written Modes of Meaning’. San Diego:
Academic Press Inc.
HALLIDAY M.A.K. and HASAN R. 1976. Cohesion in English. Longman.
HOWATT, Anthony. (1984). ‘A History of the English Language Teaching’.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
HYMES, D. (1972). ‘On communicative competence’. Harmondsworth:
Penguin.
JAKOBSON, R. (1960). Linguistics and Poetics. Cambridge: The Mass. MIT
Press.
RIVERS, Wilga. (1981). ‘Teaching Foreign Language Skills’. Chicago: The
University of Chicago Press.
ROBINSON, Ken & ARONICA, Lou. (2015). ‘Creative Schools: The Grassroots
Revolution That’s Transforming Education’. New York: Viking Press.