Understanding Language: Functions, Disciplines, and Grammar
Functions of Language
- Denotative, Referential, or Representative: When the sender uses language to transmit information about things to the recipient.
- Emotive or Expressive Function: When the sender uses language with the intention to express feelings and desires.
- Conative or Appellative Function: When the sender’s intention is to draw the attention of the recipient or to get them to act.
- Phatic Function or Contact: The sender uses language to start or complete communication, to keep up and check if
Sentence Types, Text Structures, and Literary Devices
Sentence Types
According to the speaker’s intention, there are seven types of sentences:
- Declarative: Used to report facts or ideas. Example: He wanted to be an actor. Declarative sentences can be affirmative or negative.
- Interrogative: Used to ask something. Example: Do you know what time it is?
- Exclamatory: Used to express surprise, joy, wonder, sadness, etc. Example: How delicious this cake is!
- Hortatory: Used to give orders or to prohibit. Example: Come here right now.
- Optative: Used to make wishes.
Early American Literature: 17th and 18th Centuries
Anne Bradstreet
The Author to Her Book
(1) Thou ill-formed offspring of my feeble brain,
(2) Who after birth didst by my side remain,
(3) Till snatched from thence by friends, less wise than true,
(4) Who thee abroad exposed to public view…
(5) Made thee in rags, halting to th’press to trudge,
To My Dear and Loving Husband
(1) If ever two were one, then surely we.
(2) If ever man were loved by wife, then thee;
(3) If ever wife was happy in a man,
(4) Compare with me, ye women, if you can.
(5) I prize thy
Read MoreTsotsi’s Transformation: A Story of Redemption in Apartheid South Africa
In Tsotsi, the novel revolves around the character of Tsotsi, a young man who leads a gang of four thugs in a township of Johannesburg, South Africa, in the 1950s. While the novel isn’t just about Tsotsi, technically, the story is shaped by all the other minor characters because they are the people who alter the plot, and the plot revolves around Tsotsi. Throughout the novel, we see an evolution of Tsotsi’s character from a hardened, uncaring individual to a man with an understanding much greater
Read MoreUnderstanding Language Variations: Jargon, Slang, and Dialects
Item 5
Generational Differences in Language
Main features of each language:
- Youth: Young people are often more receptive to recent creations, Anglicisms, and the lexicon of languages from older generations.
- Marginal: More conservative, using words or phrases unknown to other age groups.
- Child language: Features related to the fact that the speaker is still immersed in the learning process of the language.
What is Jargon?
Jargon refers to the linguistic varieties characteristic of different professional
Read MoreTextual Analysis: Functions, Features, and Linguistic Levels
The text under discussion is an act of communication in which the issuer addresses the reader about a specific item. The communicative atmosphere is characterized by emotional distance between author and reader, and this circumstance determines the formal tone of the letter, although at times the writer becomes an accomplice of their readership. This topic has been predetermined by the author without addressing the immediate response from readers. In the text, the following functions predominate:
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