LANGUAGE FUNCTIONS - Assigment Week 4 - review chapter 4

 CHAPTER 4

Language Functions, Text-categories and Text-types

THE EXPRESSIVE FUNCTION

The core of the expressive function is the mind of the speaker, the writer, the originator of the utterance, the characteristic 'expressive' text-types are:

1.      Serious imaginative literature. Of the four principal types -lyrical poetry, short stories, novels, plays - lyrical poetry is the most intimate expression, while plays are more evidently addressed to a large audience, which, in the translation, is entitled to some assistance with cultural expressions.

2.      Authoritative statements. These are texts of any nature which derive their authority from the high status or the reliability and linguistic competence of their authors. Such texts have the personal 'stamp' of their authors, although they are denotative, not connotative. Typical authoritative statements are political speeches, documents, etc., by ministers or party leaders; statutes and legal documents; scientific, philosophical, and 'academic' works were written by acknowledged authorities.

3.       Autobiography, essays, personal correspondence. These are expressive when they
are personal effusions, when the readers are a remote background.

 

THE INFORMATIVE FUNCTION

The core of the informative function of language is external the situation, the facts of a topic, the reality outside language, including reported ideas or theories. The format of an informative text is often standard: a textbook, a technical report, an article in a newspaper or a periodical, a scientific paper, a thesis, minutes or agenda of a meeting, One normally assumes a modern, non -regional, non-class, non-idiolectal style, with perhaps four points on a scale of language varieties:

1.      A formal, non-emotive, technical style for academic papers, characterized in English by passives, present, and perfect tenses, literal language, Latinised vocabulary, jargon, multi-noun compounds with 'empty verbs, no metaphors;

2.      A neutral or informal style with defined technical terms for textbooks characterized by first-person plurals, present tenses, dynamic active verbs, and basic conceptual metaphors;

3.      An informal warm style for popular science or art books (e.g., coffee-table  books), characterized by simple grammatical structures, a wide range of vocabulary to accommodate definitions and numerous illustrations, and stock metaphors and a simple vocabulary;

4.      A familiar, racy, non-technical style for popular journalism, characterized by surprising metaphors, short sentences, Americanese, unconventional punctuation, adjectives before proper names, and colloquialisms.

 

THE VOCATIVE FUNCTION

The core of the vocative function of language is the readership, the addressee. This function of language has been given many other names, including conative (denoting effort), instrumental, operative, and pragmatic (in the sense of used to produce a certain effect on the readership).

1.      The first factor in all vocative texts is the relationship between the writer and the readership, which is realized in various types of socially or personally determined grammatical relations or forms of address, infinitives, imperatives, subjunctives, indicatives, impersonal, passives; first and/or family names, titles, hypocoristic names; tags, such as 'please, all play their part in determining asymmetrical or symmetrical relationships, relationships of power or equality, command, request or persuasion.

2.      The second factor is that these texts must be written in a language that is immediately comprehensible to the readership. Thus for translation, the linguistic and cultural level of the SL text has to be reviewed before it is given a pragmatic impact.

 

THE AESTHETIC FUNCTION

This is language designed to please the senses, firstly through its actual or imagined sound, and secondly through its metaphors. The rhythm, balance, and contrasts of sentences, clauses, and words also play their part. The sound effects consist of onomatopoeia, alliteration, assonance, rhyme, meter, intonation, stress - some of these play a part in most types of texts.

 

THE PHATIC FUNCTION

The phatic function of language is used for maintaining friendly contact with the addressee rather than for imparting foreign information.

IN SPOKEN LANGUAGE	IN WRITTEN LANGUAGE
How are you?	Of course
You know	Naturally
Are you well?	Undoubtedly
Have a good week-end	It is interesting/ important to note that
See you tomorrow	It is well known that
Lovely to see you
Did you have a good Christmas?

THE METALINGUAL FUNCTION

Lastly, the metalingual function of language indicates a language's ability to explain, name, and criticize its own features. Functions of language operationally as the most convenient way of looking at a text for translation. Literary texts are distinguished from the rest in being more important in their mental and imaginative connotations than their factual denotations.