Pragmatic Development

Pragmatic Development - What do words do?

Language functions

Michael Halliday’s ‘Learning how to mean’ proposed seven main ‘functions’ that spurred a child to want to use language.

FUNCTION	WHAT IT IS	WHAT IT’S USED FOR
INSTRUMENTAL	Language used to fulfil a speaker’s need	Directly concerned with obtaining food, drink comfort etc . eg ‘I want’
REGULATORY	Used to influence the behaviour of others	Persuading / commanding / requesting other people do as you want ‘daddy push’ (child on swing)
INTERACTIONAL	Used to develop social relationships and ease interaction	The Phatic dimension of talk eg ‘hello’
PERSONAL	Used to express personal preferences / the speaker’s identity	Sometimes referred to the ‘here I am!’ function – conveys attitudes, expresses feelings
INFORMATIVE	Used to communicate information	Relaying or requesting information eg ‘I got a new doll
HEURISTIC	Used to learn and explore the environment	Using language to learn – this may be questions or answers or the kind of running commentary that accompanies child’s play
IMAGINATIVE	used to explore the imagination	May also accompany play as children create imaginary worlds / may arise from story telling. Also jokes, songs etc

This can be a complex system which is difficult to apply to data, therefore, John Dore’s ‘Infant Language Functions’ is a lot simpler to learn.

FUNCTION	EXAMPLE
LABELLING	Naming or identifying a person, object or experience
REPEATING	Echoing something spoken by an adult speaker
ANSWERING	Giving a direct response to an utterance from another speaker
REQUESTING ACTION	Demanding food, drink, toy, assistance etc
CALLING	Attracting attention by shouting
GREETING	Pretty self explanatory
PROTESTING	Objecting to requests etc
PRACTISING	Using and repeating language when no adult is present

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