Understanding Language Functions and Social Varieties

The Role of Language: Functions and Purposes

Language serves various purposes in communication. Understanding these functions helps us analyze how messages are constructed and interpreted.

Referential or Representative Function

This function focuses on the context or referent, aiming to convey information about external reality. Its characteristic feature is objectivity. While it may seem to lack the rich linguistic resources found in other functions, its key characteristics include:

• The indicative mood
• Lack of adjectives that involve value judgments
• Neutral and denotative vocabulary
• Neutral intonation

Expressive or Emotive Function

This function is oriented towards the emitter. The message emphasizes the speaker's attitude towards facts, feelings, and what is being said. The speaker's subjectivity is reflected through specific linguistic choices, such as:

• Exclamations
• Exclamatory mood
• Exclamative adjectives or pronouns
• Evaluative adjectives
• The subjunctive mood (with optional value)
• Affective suffixes

Conative or Appeal Function

Oriented towards the receiver, this function's intention is to influence the receiver's behavior: to elicit a response, prompt an action, change an attitude, or generate interest. The conative function is the primary function of advertising language and ideological propaganda. It is also found in colloquial language, often associated with the expressive function. Its linguistic markers include:

• Vocatives
• The imperative mood
• Interrogative sentences
• Use of affective elements
• Evaluative adjectives
• Rhetorical devices

Phatic or Contact Function

This function acts on the channel. It pertains to messages whose purpose is to establish, maintain, or close a communication channel between the sender and receiver. The phatic function is characteristic of courtesy formulas, condolences, and congratulations. In these cases, the message is often limited to the repetition of clichés.

Metalinguistic Function

Centered on the code, this function is characteristic of messages where language itself is the subject of reference. Verbal language is the only communication system that allows itself to talk about itself, a property known as reflexivity. It is the characteristic function of linguistics, dictionaries, and grammars.

Poetic Function

This function is oriented towards the message. It appears in expressions where the message draws attention to itself. It employs various resources that operate at the phonetic, morphosyntactic, and lexical levels. This function is unique to literature and poetry, but it can also be found in colloquial language, advertising language, and any instance of language used with an aesthetic purpose.

Social Varieties of Language

The way a language is used within a specific social stratum of a linguistic community is known as a diastratic variety, social dialect, or language level. A speaker's degree of education or culture is a determining factor in their language choices. Other distinguishing factors include:

• Habitat: Rural and urban language varieties
• Age
• Occupation or activity

Cultured Language Level

This level is characteristic of individuals with a high cultural level. Some linguists equate it with scientific and literary language. It is the most accurate, structured, and rigid variety, and its features include:

1. Correction: Adherence to grammatical and lexical norms.
2. Lexical Richness: A rich and precise vocabulary that encompasses scientific and specialized terminology.
3. Capacity for Abstraction: Ability to express abstract concepts with greater depth and precision.
4. Literary Tradition: Often reflects established literary conventions.

Standard Language Level

This linguistic variety represents a medium, yet formal, language level. It adheres to the regulatory requirements of the language, though it is less rigid and meticulous than the cultured variety. It serves as a model for both oral and written communication and is the common language for the vast majority of speakers within a given sociocultural environment.

Popular Language Level

This level is situated at an intermediate level of language proficiency and is primarily used in everyday contexts. Its characteristics include:

• Subjectivity of the speaker
• Economy in the use of linguistic means
• Continuous appeals to the listener
• Use of proverbial language (colloquialisms, proverbs)

Vulgar Language Level

Used by individuals from more modest and lower socioeconomic strata, often with limited formal education. It is a linguistically impoverished system with simplified grammar and limited vocabulary. It is characterized by the impairment of standard language norms and constant use of slang and grammatically incorrect or misspelled words.