I

NTRODUCTION TO

L

INGUISTICS

.

L

ECTURE

2.

Features and functions of language

I. ‘Design’ features of language (Ch. F. Hockett, 1960, ‘The origin of speech’):

1. Vocal-auditory channel
2. Broadcast transmission and directional reception
3. Rapid fading (transitoriness)
4. Interchangeability (taking the role of both the sender and the receiver)
5. Total feedback
6. Specialisation (sounds specialised for language; communication does not serve any

additional physiological function)

7. Semanticity (having meaning)
8. Arbitrariness (the opposite of iconicity)
9. Discreteness (sentences, words, sounds consist of distinguishable components)
10. Creativity:

a. openness
b. recursion

11. Duality (meaningful senses from meaningless sounds)
12. Displacement:

a. spatial
b. temporal
c. modal

13. Cultural transmission
14. Grammaticality
15. Reflexiveness

II. Functions of language:

1. Referential (informative, cognitive, representative): to convey information, to point to

objects and events;

2. Emotive (expressive): to express feelings, describe or appeal to emotions;
3. Conative (imperative, pragmatic, persuasive): to persuade someone to do something,

to achieve practical effects;

4. Poetic (aesthetic): to attract the attention to the formal properties of the message;
5. Phatic: to start, maintain and finish linguistic contact;
6. Performative: to perform certain acts;
7. Metalinguistic (metalingual): to talk about language itself.

DOMAIN

FUNCTION

DOMINANT

SUBORDINATE

Journalism

Referential

Expressive, Conative

Advertising

Conative

Referential, Poetic

Religion

Expressive

Conative, Poetic

Law

Referential

Metalinguistic, Conative

Literature

Poetic

Expressive, Referential

Conversation

Phatic

Referential, Expressive

‘Classroom’

?

?