Jakobsons functions of language

Roman Jakobson's "The Speech Event and the Functions of Language."

(Jakobson's terms honored over Yaguello's)

Sue Smith, [e-mail]

Yaguello, Marina. Language through the Looking Glass: Exploring Language and Linguistics. Trans. Marina Yaguello and Trevor Harris. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1998.
The speech event, an act of verbal communication, brings into play 6 features, closely interdependent. An utterance does not necessarily/usually have only one function.
CONSTITUATIVE FACTORS of a SPEECH EVENT

Addresser

THE FUNCTIONS of
LANGUAGE

PURPOSE

INSPIRING

emotive

conveying

lyric poetry
(first person)

conveying

elegaic poetry
(second
person)

conveying

epic poetry
(third person)

a speaker addresses a message (expressive) function

Addressee

conative

emotion

commands

a hearer who may be absent or implicit (vocative, imperative) function

Context

referential
(informative)
function

information

Code

metalingual

conveying

referent or subject matter of the discourse, what it refers to

fully or partly known to addresser and addressee

Contact

channel or connection between the two parties

Message

focus on the message for its own sake

(metalinguistic) function code analysis

phatic

concerning

function

poetic

function

contact

conveying

play, pleasure

CHARACTERISTICS

>direct expression of the speaker's attitude toward what s/he is speaking about
>interjections, onomatopoeia, swear words, and exclamations
>paralinguistic features: mimicry, gesture, mannerisms, speed of delivery, intonation, volume (example: 40 different interpretations of "this evening")
>not liable to a truth test: "Drink!"--cannot be challenged by "Is it true or not?"
>pragmatic relations which are external to the utterance proper
> prayer, religious or magical formulas: "Let there be light!" "Abracadabra"
>speech-act verbs or performatives, grounded in action, word embodies act:
"I baptize you," "I now pronounce you," "I dub thee"
> transforms or attempts to