Halliday’s Functions of Language in the Child Language Acquisition Debate (by Nick Christodoulou)
Several attempts have been made to catalogue the different functions of language, and to chart child language development in terms of the increasing range of these functions to be found in the growing child’s repertoire. Michael Halliday’s taxonomy is documented below:- Instrumental: Language used to fulfil a need on the part of the speaker. Directly concerned with obtaining food, drink and comfort.
– Regulatory: Language used to influence the behaviour of others. Concerned with persuading / commanding / requesting other people to do things you want.
– Interactional: Language used to develop social relationships and ease the process of interaction. Concerned with the phatic dimension of talk.
– Personal: Language used to express the personal preferences and identity of the speaker. Sometimes referred to as the ‘Here I am!’ function – announcing oneself to the world.
– Representational: Language used to exchange information. Concerned with relaying or requesting information.
– Heuristic: Language used to learn and explore the environment. Child uses language to learn; this may be questions and answers, or the kind of running commentary that frequently accompanies children’s play.
– Imaginative: Language used to explore the imagination. May also accompany play as children create imaginary worlds, or may arise from storytelling.
Should you want further reading on language acquisition, these websites are very helpful and explain all the relevant hypotheses and theories:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_acquisition
http://home.cogeco.ca/~monicafitz/theories.htm
http://www.alphadictionary.com/articles/ling001.html
(By Nicholas Christodoulou)
hi. the definitions here are very clear. i read them in Brown’s book but it was very difficult for me to undrestand.
thanks.
oh.,,, what a very specific definition…. thanks. it helps me a lot.
this is fantastic work,brilliant please keepit up
Hi,realy this article help me to much.thanks alot.
which one is not Halliday`s perspective to define social context?
field of discourse, tenor of discourse, mode of discourse or function of discourse?
precise and concise, thanks sir
good but short
These are great and easy to understand definitions of Halliday’s Language Functions; however, you left out Instrumental which is a focus on getting wants and needs met.
Apologies about that and thanks for this!!
Helped me a lot.
I like and hlghli appreciated
Thanks a lot,but u missed the instrumental function.
Thanks!! Was very clear. 🙂
well, very nice and helpful work, but it could be much better if you give examples for each function.
Yes, you are probably right.
Can anyone help please? What the functions of language is in the young child?
I am writing my exams on child development and this is one of the questions that ‘I need assistance with.
Kind regards
Grady Du Toit
is “How are you?” a heuristic function?
This is helpful. Keep it up!
It is nice, the definition here is clear. but i need more info..
Yes, it could be if it was a genuine inquiry about finding out what someone felt, rather than a form of politeness.