Mastering Language Functions and Sentence Types for Effective Communication

Textual Properties: Analyzing Context and Purpose

To analyze a text's properties and ensure it fits its context, we consider its communicative intent or purpose. The issuer's desired message, what they aim to convey, is reflected through:

1. Functions of Language

• 1.1. Representational Function

  This is the basic function of any communication, where the sender intends to convey objective information about reality.

• 1.2. Emotive (Expressive) Function

  Here, the message focuses on the issuer, expressing their emotions and moods, making their attitude subjective. Resources revealing this function include exclamatory intonation, interjections, appreciative suffixes, and lexical connotations. This function is common in colloquial speech.

• 1.3. Conative (Appellative) Function

  Attention turns to the receiver, whom the speaker addresses to elicit a response or action. Resources include vocatives, the imperative verbal mood, and the interrogative mood. This function is common in propaganda texts.

• 1.4. Phatic (Contact) Function

  The focus is on the communication channel. Messages aim to initiate, maintain, or terminate communication. Resources for this function include specific phrases and social formulas used to start, continue, or end a conversation.

• 1.5. Metalinguistic Function

  Language is used to talk about language itself. Examples include dictionary definitions, grammar rules, and linguistic explanations in any science.

• 1.6. Poetic (Aesthetic) Function

  This occurs when the message draws particular attention to itself or its form. Rhetorical figures are stylistic or linguistic resources used to achieve this function in texts.

2. Sentential Forms: Speaker's Attitude

This refers to the attitude the speaker conveys towards the listener or the content of the statement. The key is to determine which sentence form is predominant in the text:

• 2.1. Declarative Sentences

  These objectively report a fact, either affirming or denying it.

• 2.2. Interrogative Sentences

  Used to elicit a response from the interlocutor. These can be total (expecting a 'yes' or 'no' answer) or partial (seeking specific information, asked directly).

• 2.3. Exclamatory Sentences

  Used to express the speaker's strong emotions or subjectivity (e.g., 'What a great job you did!').

• 2.4. Imperative (Hortatory) Sentences

  These express a request, command, or mandate.

• 2.5. Dubitative and Possibility Sentences

  These express the speaker's attitudes ranging from doubt to possibility or chance.

• 2.6. Optative (Desire) Sentences

  These manifest a desire or wish.