Functions of Language
1) What are the functions of language? (450 – 500 words)
All forms of human life communicate with each other and humans are not unique in this capacity. Human forms of communication include verbal forms, body language and gestures. However, this communication system is learned instead of being biologically inherited. Children for example, acquire a language as they develop and grow and this miraculous language ‘instint’ (Pinker 1994) seems, at first glance, to happen effortlessly. As Romaine (1994:221) puts it, 'language has no existence apart from the social reality of its users'.
A major function of language being a learned symbolic communication system is that it is infinitely flexible. It serves as an instrument of communication where it is a system of relatively arbitrary symbols and grammatical signals used for several purposes to interact with each other, to communicate ideas, emotions and intentions and to transmit their culture from generation to generation. At an early stage, language is used to satisfy ones simple needs or desires. As far as we can see, children are not taught language, nor do they set out to learn it consciously. Rather they acquire it subconsciously as a result of the massive exposure to it which they get from the adults and other children around them. Where at a later stage it takes the form of regulatory means of polite request or persuasion and may include giving orders or at a more subtle level, manipulating and controlling others.
Besides using a language to interactionally establish and define social relationships which include negotiations, encouragement and expressions, it is also used to express individuality and personality as a part of personal language between people. Language is also used in an imaginative way to express fantasy through dramatic plays, drama, poetry or stories. One of the most important functions of language is the heuristic language of inquiry used to explore the environment, investigate and
All forms of human life communicate with each other and humans are not unique in this capacity. Human forms of communication include verbal forms, body language and gestures. However, this communication system is learned instead of being biologically inherited. Children for example, acquire a language as they develop and grow and this miraculous language ‘instint’ (Pinker 1994) seems, at first glance, to happen effortlessly. As Romaine (1994:221) puts it, 'language has no existence apart from the social reality of its users'.
A major function of language being a learned symbolic communication system is that it is infinitely flexible. It serves as an instrument of communication where it is a system of relatively arbitrary symbols and grammatical signals used for several purposes to interact with each other, to communicate ideas, emotions and intentions and to transmit their culture from generation to generation. At an early stage, language is used to satisfy ones simple needs or desires. As far as we can see, children are not taught language, nor do they set out to learn it consciously. Rather they acquire it subconsciously as a result of the massive exposure to it which they get from the adults and other children around them. Where at a later stage it takes the form of regulatory means of polite request or persuasion and may include giving orders or at a more subtle level, manipulating and controlling others.
Besides using a language to interactionally establish and define social relationships which include negotiations, encouragement and expressions, it is also used to express individuality and personality as a part of personal language between people. Language is also used in an imaginative way to express fantasy through dramatic plays, drama, poetry or stories. One of the most important functions of language is the heuristic language of inquiry used to explore the environment, investigate and