F. i. represent a manifestation of its essence, its purpose and action in society, its nature, i.e. they are its characteristics, without which the language cannot be itself. The two most important, basic F. I. are: communicative - to be "the most important means of human communication" (V. I. Lenin), and cognitive(cognitive, epistemological, sometimes called expressive, that is, expressions of the activity of consciousness) - to be "the direct reality of thought" (K. Marx). They are also added as base emotional F. i. - to be one of the means of expressing feelings and emotions, and metalinguistic (metalinguistic) Ph. i. - be a means of research and description of the language in terms of the language itself. Basic F. I. mutually condition each other when using the language, but in individual acts of speech and in texts they are revealed to varying degrees. With the basic, as primary, private, as derivatives, F. i. The communication function is contact-setting(phatic), conative(assimilation), voluntarily(impact) and function storage and transmission national self-consciousness, traditions of culture and history of the people and some others. Functions are combined with the cognitive function: tools for cognition and mastering socio-historical experience and knowledge, evaluation (axiological), as well as denotations (nominations), references, predications and some others. The modal function is associated with the emotional function and the expression of creative potentials is correlated, which in various scientific fields is combined with the cognitive function, but is most fully realized in fiction, especially in poetry ( poetic function).
The implementation of the communicative function in various spheres of human activity determines the public F. I. Yu. D. Desheriev distinguishes languages with the maximum scope of public functions - international and interethnic communication, then there are groups of languages, the scope of public functions of which is narrowing: languages of nationalities and nationalities that exist in written (literary) and spoken forms, including territorial and social dialects, then tribal spoken languages (some of which acquire the status of official written languages in developing countries) and languages with a minimal amount of public philosophies. - the so-called one-aul non-written languages. The nature of the relationships between linguistic and social structures is studied by sociolinguistics.
Interest in establishing F. I. emerged in the 20th century. Prior to this, the word "function" was used non-terminologically (for example, by G. Paul, A. A. Potebnya) to denote the role of units in syntax (subject function, complement function) and in morphology (form function, inflection function). Later, the function began to be understood as the meaning of form, construction (O. Jespersen), as a position in the construction (L. Bloomfield). All this led to the emergence of a particular scientific interpretation of the function as a grammatical meaning, role (L. Tenier), the use of language units (see Functional grammar, Functional linguistics).
In The Theses of the Prague Linguistic Circle (1929), the definition of language as a functional system was substantiated and two functions of speech activity were described: communication and poetic. In the light of the semiological principle, the German psychologist K. Buhler singled out three F. I. as manifested in any act of speech: the function of expression (expressive), correlated with the speaker, the function of address (appellative), correlated with the listener, and the function of the message (representative), correlated with the subject in question. The question of the quantity and nature of F. I. was repeatedly discussed, and were separated by F. i. and functions of language units. A. Martinet postulates the presence of three Ph. I.: the main one - communicative, expressive (expressive) and aesthetic, closely related to the first two. R. O. Jacobson, taking into account the postulates of the theory of communication, to the three participants in the act of speech - the speaker (sender, addresser), listener (recipient, addressee) and the subject of speech (context, referent) - added three more: contact (communication channel), code and message, and accordingly singled out six Ph. I.: expressive (expressions, emotive), conative (assimilation), referential (communicative, denotative, cognitive), phatic (contact-establishing), metalinguistic and poetic (understanding the latter as a form of message in general). Critics of this theory note that all functions are essentially varieties of the communicative one and act as one-order functions.
Considering speech activity as a unity of communication and generalization, A. A. Leontiev separated F. I., manifested in any situation of communication, from the functions of speech as optional, arising in special situations. In the field of communication with F. I. communicative, and in the sphere of generalization - the function of an instrument of thinking, the function of the existence of socio-historical experience and the national-cultural function; all of them can be duplicated by non-linguistic means (mnemonics, counting tools, plans, maps, diagrams, etc.). The functions of speech include: magical (taboos, euphemisms), diacritical (compression of speech, for example in telegrams), expressive (expression of emotions), aesthetic (poetic) and some others. V. A. Avrorin is among F. Ya. named four: communicative, expressive (expressions of thought), constructive (thought formation) and accumulative (accumulation of social experience and knowledge), and among the functions of speech - six: nominative, emotive-voluntative, signal, poetic, magical and ethnic. Some researchers allocate over 25 F. I. and functions of language units.
In the 70-80s. 20th century there was a desire to connect F. I. with the apparatus for their implementation in the system and structure of the language (M. A. K. Halliday). Yu. S. Stepanov, on the basis of the semiotic principle, deduced three F. I.: nominative, syntactic and pragmatic, as universal properties of the language, corresponding to three aspects of general semiotics: semantics - nomination, syntactic - predication and pragmatics - location. Characterizing signs (nominal and verbal classes of words) act as the primary apparatus of nomination, predications are elementary syntactic contact phrases, locations are the deixis of the communication situation (“I am here and now”), and the secondary apparatus is formed on the basis of the transposition of signs. These F. I., according to this theory, underlie all the possibilities of using the language as a means of communication, cognition and influence.
Problem F. I. is of particular interest in connection with the expansion of the scope of language learning in action, the features of colloquial speech, functional styles, text linguistics, etc. Researchers are faced with the task of establishing how and what means of the system and structure of the language serve primarily to identify one or another Ph. I.
- Martin A., Fundamentals of General Linguistics, trans. from French, in the book: New in linguistics, v. 3, M., 1963;
- Buhler K., Theory of language (extracts), in the book: Zvegintsev V. A., History of linguistics of the XIX-XX centuries in essays and extracts, part 2, M., 1965;
- Leontiev A. A., Language, speech, speech activity, M., 1969;
- Stepanov Yu. S., Semiotic structure of language (three functions and three formal apparatuses of language), Izv. USSR Academy of Sciences, ser. LiYA, 1973, v. 32, c. 4;
- Syrovatkin S. N., The meaning of the statement and the function of language in the semiotic interpretation, "Problems of Linguistics", 1973, No. 5;
- Avrorin V. A., Problems of studying the functional side of the language, L., 1975;
- Jacobson R., Linguistics and poetics, in the book: Structuralism: "for" and "against", M., 1975;
- Torsueva I. G., Theory of utterance and intonation, "Issues of Linguistics", 1976, No. 2;
- Desheriev Yu. D., Social Linguistics, M., 1977;
- Halliday M. A. K., The place of the “functional perspective of the proposal” (FPP) in the system of linguistic description, trans. from English, in the book: New in foreign linguistics, v. 8, Moscow, 1978;
- Slyusareva NA, Methodological aspect of the concept of language functions, Izv. USSR Academy of Sciences, ser. LiYA, 1979, v. 38, c. 2;
- tenier L., Fundamentals of structural syntax, trans. from French, M., 1988.
| Parameter name | Meaning |
| Article subject: | Language Features |
| Rubric (thematic category) | Connection |
Language functions - concept and types. Classification and features of the category "Language functions" 2017, 2018.
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1. The most important means of human communication is language. The purpose of the language to be a tool of communication is called its communicative function. Communicating with each other, people convey their thoughts, expressions of will, feelings and emotional experiences, influence each other in a certain direction, achieve a common understanding. Language gives people the opportunity to understand each other and to work together in all spheres of human activity. Language has been and remains one of the forces that ensure the existence and development of human society.
The communicative function of language is the main social function of language. As its further development, complication and socialization, the language acquires expressive and accumulative functions.
2. Expressive The function of a language is its ability to express information, convey it and influence the interlocutor. Expressive function is considered as a unity of expression and transmission of a message ( informative function), feelings and emotions ( emotive function), the will of the speaker ( voluntarily function).
3. Thought-forming function- Language is used as a means of thinking in the form of words.
4. Language is not only a means of communication for individual speakers. Language is also a means of interethnic communication, a means of preserving accumulated experience and knowledge for posterity. This function of language to reflect knowledge and store it is called cognitive (epistemological) function.
Language, as the most important means of communication, performs its social functions due to the flexibility of its units, the multidimensionality and dynamism of the language system and its categories.
Different units of the language participate in different ways in the performance of the social functions of the language, in the expression and transmission of the message. Directly in the act of communication, nominative and predicative units of the language are used - words and sentences. Nominative units are not only individual significant words ( house, walk, five, good, fast etc.), but also compound names and phraseological units ( railway, lecture, wholeheartedly etc.). Predicative units are different kinds of proposals.
In addition to communicative units, the language also has military units, necessary for the construction of nominative and predicative units. Such units of the language are phonemes and morphemes, word forms and models of word formation, inflection and construction of sentences.
The means of language, its units and models have a triple relation - to the language system, thinking and a person - the speaker, the listener and the reader. Units of language differ in material and ideal side, form and content, and the nature of these sides and the relationship to each other are different for different sides.
All units, like all sign units, have a material side. They must be perceived by the senses, primarily by the organs of hearing and vision. The ability of language units to be perceived is called them perceptual function. Units of language serve to designate and delimit something else, ideal and material. The ability of language units to designate and distinguish them is called significative function.
The material side of language units is formed by phonemes and morphemes, as well as their typical combinations - phonemic and morphemic blocks. Phonemes and morphemes are the smallest units of the language, they have distinctive functions. For example, the words: heat and ball, var and thief, thief and ox differ respectively by one phoneme, each of which is not a morpheme. The words kit and selection, collection differ by prefix morpheme, and the words collector and compilation- suffix morpheme.
According to the matter that is used to build units of communication, language can be sound and written. The main form of the language is sound, since there are unwritten languages, while only written fixation (without its sound) makes the language dead.
Additional means of communication are audio and graphic. So, along with ordinary colloquial speech, various sound signals are used, for example, calls, beeps; modern technical means of communication adjoin here, such as: sound recording, telephone, video telephone, radio, etc.
Graphic additional means of communication are more diverse. For all of them, it is characteristic that they translate the sound form of the language into a graphic one - in whole or in part. Among the graphic forms of speech, in addition to the main form - the common letter of a given people, it is necessary to distinguish:
2 Specialized alarm systems, for example: telegraphic alphabets (Morse code), road signs, signaling with flags, rockets, etc.
3 Scientific symbolism- mathematical, chemical, logical, etc. In modern science, the symbolism of mathematical logic is widely used:
R - relation: xRy - x is related to y.
All the mentioned systems of signaling, symbols, language means, being different sign systems, are used as a means of communication. Language is a comprehensive historically established system of means of communication that serves society in all areas of its activity.
The question of the functions of language is closely connected with the problem of the origin of language. What reasons, what living conditions of people contributed to its origin, its formation? What is the purpose of language in the life of society? These questions were answered not only by linguists, but also by philosophers, logicians, and psychologists.
The appearance of language is closely connected with the formation of man as a thinking being. Language arose naturally and is a system that is necessary both for an individual (individual) and society (collective). As a result, language is inherently multifunctional.
First of all, it serves as a means of communication, allowing the speaker (individual) to express his thoughts, and the other individual to perceive them and, in turn, respond accordingly (take note, agree, object). Thus, the language helps people to share experiences, transfer their knowledge, organize any work, build and discuss plans for joint activities.
Language also serves as a means of consciousness, promotes the activity of consciousness and reflects its result. Language is involved in the formation of the thinking of the individual (individual consciousness) and the thinking of society (public consciousness).
The development of language and thinking is an interdependent process. The development of thinking contributes to the enrichment of the language, new concepts require new names; the improvement of the language entails the improvement of thinking.
Language, in addition, helps to save (accumulate) and transmit information, which is important both for an individual and for the whole society. In written monuments (chronicles, documents, memoirs, fiction, newspapers), in oral folk art, the life of the nation, the history of native speakers of a given language is recorded. In this regard, there are three main functions of the language:
Communicative;
Cognitive (cognitive, epistemological);
Accumulative (epistemic).
In the communicative functioning of the language, the main task of which is to ensure mutual understanding of the parties united by specific goals and common interests, there is no need to use the creative potential of the language. On the contrary, their use can significantly complicate communication, both domestic and professional. The desire to avoid obscure (unusual) terms and expressions is therefore the norm in those areas of human interaction where the main goal of communication is the exchange of necessary information. The language stamps of ordinary word usage, as well as formalized languages and terminological systems in scientific and professional communities are a kind of personification of this conscious attitude towards the unification of expressive means.
Cognitive, or, as some scholars call it, intellectual function of language is necessarily associated with the attitude towards spiritual and cultural growth of the communicating parties (thinking subjects) in the process of their co-creative dialogue with each other, with the world and with language. To say here is to show the previously invisible, the unusual. Such a creative dialogue with language enriches all its participants, including, of course, the language itself as the basis of semantic interaction. The embodiment of the co-creative dialogue with the language is the national literature (including philosophy). Here, on the one hand, the language itself is enriched with new meanings under the creative influence of the human spirit, on the other hand, such an updated and enriched with new creative facets language is able to expand and enrich the spiritual life of the nation as a whole.
Additional functions are manifested in speech and are determined by the structure of the speech act, i.e. the presence of the addresser, the addressee (participants of communication) and the subject of the conversation. Let's name two such functions: emotional (expresses the internal state of the speaker, his feelings) and volitional (the function of influencing listeners).
In addition to the main and additional functions mentioned above, the magic function of the language also stands out. This is due to the idea that some words, expressions have magical power, are able to change the course of events, influence a person’s behavior, his fate. In the religious and mythological consciousness, formulas of prayers, spells, conspiracies, divination, and curses primarily possess such power.
Since language serves as a material and form of artistic creation, it is legitimate to speak of the poetic function of language.
In scientific and philosophical literature, in addition to the above functions, at least one more is usually singled out, and it is always different for different thinkers.
For example, R.I. Pavilenis, in addition to “coding” (in our definition, communicative) and “generative” (cognitive), identifies a “manipulative” function, which, in our opinion, is one of the functional manifestations (modalities) of the communicative function.
A.A. Vetrov in the book "Semiotics and Its Main Problems" highlights the "expressive" function of the language, the meaning of which is in the expression of the speaker's feelings. However, noting its "secondary character", since most linguists do not attribute the expression of emotions to an essential aspect of language, he himself recognizes its redundancy.
The ideological inspirer of the Tartu-Moscow semiotic school Yu.M. Lotman, in addition to the "informational" and "creative" functions, singles out the "memory function", meaning by it the ability of a text to retain memory of its previous contexts. The text creates around itself a kind of "semantic space", only in it gaining meaning. In our opinion, knowledge of the cultural context necessary for an adequate understanding of a historical monument, as well as knowledge of the social contexts of everyday communication, refers to the communicative function of the language, but only in different aspects (modes) of its manifestation - in the spiritual and utilitarian. This is also the case with the popular among modern domestic linguists and semiotics-Jacobson classification of language functions. Each of the six functions identified by R. Jacobson corresponds to one particular element of speech interaction, accentuated depending on the context of the expression, but all together they express various aspects of the communicative function of the language.
It should be noted that the functions we have singled out are in close dialectical interaction, which can sometimes create a deceptive appearance of their identity. Indeed, the cognitive function can almost coincide with the communicative one, for example, in the field of interpersonal interactions within the scientific community (especially in the virtual computer interaction we mentioned), in situations of intercultural dialogue, in an existentially significant conversation between two creative personalities, etc.; but it can also appear in a "pure" form, for example, in poetic and philosophical creativity.
It is also wrong to assert the greater or lesser importance of one of the selected functions of the language, for example, communicative due to its direct connection with the everyday existence of people or, conversely, cognitive due to its pronounced, creative nature. All functions of the language are equally important for the normal existence and development of linguistic consciousness, both for individuals and for the nation as a whole. Among them, it is difficult to single out the most significant, because the criteria for significance in this case are different. In one case, such properties of speech as general accessibility, simplicity and informativeness (actualization of an unambiguous meaning) are criterial, in the other, on the contrary, it is an orientation towards an individual experience of understanding, semantic ambiguity (complexity) of expressive means and the presence of many potential semantic dimensions.
Thus, the language performs a wide variety of functions, which is explained by its use in all spheres of life and activity of a person and society.
The main object of linguistics is the natural human language, in contrast to the artificial language or the language of animals.
Two closely related concepts should be distinguished - language and speech.
Language- a tool, a means of communication. This is a system of signs, means and rules of speaking, common to all members of a given society. This phenomenon is constant for a given period of time.
Speech- the manifestation and functioning of the language, the process of communication itself; it is unique for every native speaker. This phenomenon is variable depending on the speaker.
Language and speech are two sides of the same phenomenon. Language is inherent in any person, and speech is inherent in a particular person.
Speech and language can be compared to a pen and text. Language is a pen, and speech is the text that is written with this pen.
Language as a system of signs
The American philosopher and logician Charles Pierce (1839-1914), the founder of pragmatism as a philosophical trend and semiotics as a science, defined a sign as something, knowing which, we learn something more. Every thought is a sign and every sign is a thought.
Semiotics(from gr. σημειον - sign, sign) - the science of signs. The most significant division of signs is the division into iconic signs, indices and symbols.
- Iconic sign (icon from gr. εικων image) is a relationship of similarity or similarity between a sign and its object. The iconic sign is built on the association by similarity. These are metaphors, images (paintings, photos, sculpture) and schemes (drawings, diagrams).
- Index(from lat. index- scammer, index finger, heading) is a sign that refers to the designated object due to the fact that the object really affects it. However, there is no significant resemblance to the subject. The index is built on association by adjacency. Examples: a bullet hole in glass, letter symbols in algebra.
- Symbol(from gr. Συμβολον - conventional sign, signal) is the only true sign, since it does not depend on similarity or connection. Its connection with the object is conditional, as it exists due to the agreement. Most words in a language are symbols.
The German logician Gottlob Frege (1848-1925) proposed his understanding of the relation of a sign to the object it denotes. He introduced the distinction between the denotation ( Bedeutung) expression and its meaning ( sinn). Denotat (referent) is the object or phenomenon to which the sign refers.
Venus is the morning star.
Venus is the morning star.
In both expressions, the same denotation is the planet Venus, but the meaning is different, since Venus is represented in the language in different ways.
Ferdinand de Saussure (1957-1913), the great Swiss linguist who had a huge impact on the linguistics of the 20th century, proposed his sign theory of language. Below are the main provisions of this doctrine.
Language is a system of signs expressing concepts.
Language can be compared with other systems of signs, such as the alphabet for the deaf and dumb, military signals, forms of courtesy, symbolic rites, male plumage, smells, and so on. Language is only the most important of these systems.
Semiology- a science that studies the system of signs in the life of society.
Linguistics is part of this general science.
Semiotics- a synonymous term for the Saussurean word semiology, more commonly used in modern linguistics.
The American semiotician Charles Morris (1901-1979), a follower of Charles Peirce, distinguished three sections of semiotics:
- Semantics(from gr. σημα - sign) - the relationship between the sign and the object denoted by it.
- Syntactics(from gr. συνταξις - system, connection) - the relationship between signs.
- Pragmatics(from gr. πραγμα - business, action) - the relationship between signs and those who use these signs (subjects and addressees of speech).
Some sign systems
language sign
According to F. de Saussure, a linguistic sign is not a connection between a thing and its name, but a combination of a concept and an acoustic image.
concept- this is a generalized, schematic image of an object in our minds, the most important and characteristic features of this object, as it were, the definition of an object. For example, a chair is a seat with a support (legs or leg) and a back.
acoustic image is the sonic ideal equivalent of sound in our minds. When we say a word to ourselves without moving our lips or tongue, we reproduce an acoustic image of a real sound.
Both of these sides of the sign have a psychic essence, i.e. ideal and exist only in our minds.
The acoustic image in relation to the concept is to some extent material, since it is associated with real sound.
The argument in favor of the ideality of the sign is that we can talk to ourselves without moving our lips or tongue, make sounds to ourselves.
Thus, the sign is a two-sided psychic entity, consisting of the signified and the signifier.
concept- signified (fr. signify)
acoustic image- meaning (fr. signifiant).
The sign theory assumes 4 components of the designation process.
In the following example, the following components are involved:
- The real, material, real tree itself, which we want to designate with a sign;
- An ideal (mental) concept as part of a sign (denoted);
- Ideal (mental) acoustic image as part of a sign (denoting);
- The material embodiment of the ideal sign: the sounds of the spoken word wood, letters denoting the word wood.
Trees can be different, there are no two absolutely identical birches, we pronounce the word wood we, too, are all different (different tone, with different timbre, loud, whisper, etc.), we also write differently (with a pen, pencil, chalk, different handwriting, on a typewriter, computer), but a two-sided sign in our minds everyone has the same, because it is perfect.
English linguists Charles Ogden (1889-1957), Ivor Richards(1893-1979) in 1923 in The Meaning of Meaning ( The Meaning of Meaning) visually represented the sign relationship in the form of a semantic triangle (triangle of reference):
- Sign (symbol), i.e. a word in a natural language;
- Referent (Referent), i.e. the subject to which the sign refers;
- Attitude, or reference ( Reference), i.e. thought as an intermediary between a symbol and a referent, between a word and an object.
The base of the triangle is shown with a dashed line. This means that the connection between the word and the subject is not obligatory, conditional, and it is impossible without a connection with thought and concept.
However, the sign relationship can also be expressed in the form of a square, if we take into account that the second member of the triangle - thought - can consist of a concept and a connotation. The concept is common to all native speakers of a given language, and connotation, or connotation (lat. connotation- "conscience") - an associative meaning, individual for each person.
For example, a “brick” for a bricklayer may be associated with his work, and for an injured passerby, with an injury.
Language Features
The main functions of the language are as follows:
Communicative function
Language as a means of communication between people. This is the main function of the language.
Thought-forming function
Language is used as a means of thinking in the form of words.
Cognitive (epistemological) function
Language as a means of knowing the world, accumulating and transferring knowledge to other people and subsequent generations (in the form of oral traditions, written sources, audio recordings).
Speech functions
Along with the functions of language, there are also functions of speech. Roman Osipovich Yakobson (1896-1982), a Russian and American linguist (Mayakovsky wrote about him in a poem about Netta, a steamboat and a man: ... "talked all the time about Romka Yakobson and sweated funny, teaching poetry ...") proposed a scheme that describes the factors (components) of the act of communication, which correspond to the individual speech functions of the language.
An example of an act of communication is the beginning of the novel in verse "Eugene Onegin", if the lecturer recites it to students: "My uncle of the most honest rules, when he seriously fell ill ..."
Sender: Pushkin, Onegin, lecturer.
Recipient: reader, students.
Message: verse size (iambic tetrameter).
Context: message about illness.
The code: Russian language.
Corresponds context, which is understood as the subject of the message, otherwise called referent. This is a function of transmitting a message, focusing on the context of the message. In the process of communication, it is the most important, as it conveys information about the subject. In the text, this function is emphasized, for example, by the phrases: “as mentioned above”, “attention, the microphone is on” and various stage directions in the plays.
Corresponds sender, i.e. reflects the speaker's attitude to what is being said, a direct expression of the sender's feelings. When using the expressive function, it is not the message itself that is important, but the attitude towards it.
The emotive layer of the language is represented by interjections, which are the equivalents of sentences (“ah”, “oh”, “alas”). The most important means of conveying emotions are intonation and gestures.
K.S. Stanislavsky, the great Russian director, when teaching actors, asked them to send up to 40 messages, saying only one phrase, for example, "Tonight", "Fire", etc. so that the audience can guess what the situation is.
F.M. Dostoevsky in his "Diary of a Writer" describes a case when five artisans had a meaningful conversation, uttering the same obscene phrase in turn with different intonations.
This function is noticeable in a joke where the father complains about the impoliteness of his son in a letter: “They say, he wrote:“ Dad, money came out. ”No,“ Dad, money came out ”( with a pleading tone)».
The sender and sender may not always be the same. For example, among the Chinook Indian tribe, the words of the leader in front of the people are repeated by a specially assigned minister.
Poetic (aesthetic) function
Corresponds message, i.e. the main role is played by the focus on the message as such, outside of its content. The main thing is the form of the message. Attention is directed to the message for its own sake. As the name implies, this function is used primarily in poetry, where stops, rhymes, alliteration, etc., play an important role in its perception, and information is often secondary, and often the content of the poem is incomprehensible to us, but we like it form.
Similar poems were written by K. Balmont, V. Khlebnikov, O. Mandelstam, B. Pasternak and many other poets.
The aesthetic function is often used in fiction, as well as in colloquial speech. Speech in such cases is perceived as an aesthetic object. Words are accepted as something either beautiful or ugly.
Dolokhov in the novel "War and Peace" with obvious pleasure pronounces the word "on the spot" about the murdered man, not because he is a sadist, but simply because he likes the form of the word.
In Chekhov’s story “Men”, Olga read the Gospel, and did not understand much, but the holy words moved her to tears, and she uttered the words “asche” and “until” with sweet bated breath.
The following dialogue is a typical case of aesthetic function in conversation:
“Why do you always say Joan and Marjorie and not Marjorie and Joan? Do you love Joan more? “Not at all, it just sounds better that way.”
Corresponds recipient a message that the speaker is guided by, trying in one way or another to influence the addressee, to cause his reaction. Grammatically, this is often expressed by the imperative mood of verbs (Speak!), as well as the vocative case in archaic texts (man, son), for example, in a prayer in Church Slavonic: " Father ours, who are in heaven ... our daily bread give me us today."
Corresponds contact, i.e. the purpose of the message with this function is to establish, continue or interrupt communication, to check if the communication channel is working. “Hello, can you hear me? -»
For these purposes, the language has a large number of cliché phrases that are used in congratulations, at the beginning and end of a letter, and they, as a rule, do not carry literal information.
"Dear Sir! I consider you a scoundrel and a scoundrel, and from now on I break with you completely and completely.
Sincerely, Your Mr. Pumpkin."
Often, when we don’t know what to talk about with a person, but it’s simply indecent to be silent, we talk about the weather, about any events, although we may not be interested in them.
A fellow villager with a fishing rod walks past us to the river. We will definitely tell him, although it is obvious: “What, fishing?”
All these phrases are easily predictable, but their standardity and ease of use make it possible to establish contact and overcome disunity.
The American writer Dorothy Parker, during a boring party, when casual acquaintances asked her how she was doing, answered them in a tone of sweet small talk: “I just killed my husband, and everything is fine with me.”. People walked away, satisfied with the conversation, not paying attention to the meaning of what was said.
In one of her stories there is an excellent example of a phatic conversation between two lovers who practically do not need words.
"- Okay! - said the young man. - Okay! - she said.
- Okay. So it is, he said.
“So it is,” she said, “why not?”
- I think, therefore, so, he said, - something! So, so be it.
Okay, she said. All right, he said, all right.
The least talkative in this regard are the Chinook Indians. An Indian could come to a friend's house, sit there and leave without a word. The mere fact that he had bothered to come was a sufficient element of communication. It is not necessary to talk if there is no need to communicate something. There is a lack of phatic communication.
Children's speech up to three years is usually phatic, children often cannot understand what they are told, they do not know what to say, but they try to babble in order to maintain communication. Children learn this function first. The desire to start and maintain communication is typical for talking birds. The phatic function in language is the only function common to animals and humans.
