Linguistic Functions and Grammar Essentials

Linguistic Functions

Jakobson's Model

• Poetic: Focuses on the aesthetic qualities of the message itself.
• Emotive: Expresses the sender's emotions (e.g., Greetings!).
• Conative: Aims to elicit a response from the receiver (e.g., regulations, laws).
• Metalinguistic: Refers to the code of language itself (e.g., definitions).
• Phatic: Establishes or maintains the communication channel (e.g., Hello!).
• Referential: Conveys factual information.

Grammar Essentials

Parts of Speech

Nouns

Represent things, places, or animals.

Adjectives

Modify nouns (e.g., some hens, two telephones).

Pronouns

Replace nouns (e.g., I, you, us).

Verbs

Indicate the subject's action.

Adverbs

Modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs, indicating place (here, there), time (before, now), manner (quickly), doubt (perhaps), denial (no, never), or amount.

Prepositions

Show relationships between words (e.g., a, at, under, with, from, to, by).

Conjunctions

Connect words or phrases (e.g., and, or, but).

Interjections

Express emotions (e.g., Ha! Ho! Alas!).

Sentence Structure

Subject

The element that the sentence is about.

Predicate

What is said about the subject.