The document discusses the various purposes of language, including: 1) Expressive purposes - using language to express feelings, ideas, or attitudes without necessarily considering the audience. 2) Informative purposes - conveying information to others. 3) Cognitive purposes - using language to persuade, entertain, or provoke an emotional response from the audience. 4) Phatic purposes - using language to establish or maintain social contact rather than convey meaningful information. 5) Metalinguistic purposes - using language to discuss or refer to language itself.

2. The very basic levels of communication can be carried
out without the use of language. This type of
communication however is very basic and
cumbersome. Language affords human beings the
ability to communicate anything they can imagine. As
a tool, language is infinitely flexible and can be put to
multiple purposes. The following is a list of the
purposes and functions of language.

3. Expressive purposes
 Language can be used simply to express one’s feelings,
ideas or attitudes, without necessarily taking a reader
or listener into consideration. When language is used
in this way, the speaker/writer is not trying to effect
change in an audience or elicit response. He/she is
merely giving vent to emotions or needs. Diaries and
journals are obvious examples of language used for
expressive purposes.

4. EXAMPLE 1
 Tuesday, May 6, 1969
 PriscillaWeick’s Fifth-Grade Class
 A class of angels. I came off a bad session with a previous group and this class
picked me up. As I came through the door, Mrs. Weick didn’t see me because
she was busy chewing out a boy (a very bright kid). When she did notice me,
she was startled, saying, louder than usual, “Oh, hello!” with a trace of leftover
admonition in it, and everybody cracked up. Even her. That’s the kind of class it
is.

 I decided to give the Love Poem assignment here, partly because I thought
these kids would do something good with it. Today my preparatory talk was
tops. As soon as I mentioned “love poems,” there were immediate giggles, so I
asked the class why love seems to be an embarrassing emotion. “Because guys
make fun of you when you have a girlfriend.” But why do they do that? Are they
jealous? It’s odd, because love is supposed to be a good feeling, a positive and
creative force. Hate never creates laughter.

5. INFORMATIVE PURPOSES
In this case, language is employed with the intention of
conveying information to others. Therefore, a news
bulletin board at your school, textbooks or a cinema
guide are all examples of language being used for this
purpose.

6. EXAMPLE 2
Swine flu shuts Woodbrook school
One confirmed case, another suspected
Thursday, September 17th 2009
The Ministry of Health has advised that one case of
Influenza A/H1N1 (swine flu) has been confirmed at
the St Theresa's Girls' RC school in Woodbrook, while
another suspected case has been reported at the
school….

7. Cognitive purposes
When language is used cognitively, it is with the
intention of affecting the audience in some way in
order to evoke some type of response. Therefore, when
one uses language to persuade, entertain, stir to anger
or arouse sympathy, one is using language for cognitive
purposes. Jokes, political speeches and horror stories
are different examples of ways in which language can
be used cognitively.

8. EXAMPLE 3
What do you call a fish with no eyes?
A fsh

9. Poetic purposes
Language used in literary, stylistic or imaginative ways is
poetic. The user focuses on the structure and pattern
of the language and places emphasis on the manner in
which the language is manipulated. Language used for
poetic purposes is not necessarily done in verse. It is
the way in which the language is used, and not its
form, that indicates its poetic purpose.

10. EXAMPLE 4
From the tram, visitors have an amazing bird’s eye view
of a truly mature Caribbean oceanic rainforest.
Nurtured by warm, gentle rains and rich volcanic soils,
the forests have achieved a state of ancient majesty.
From LIAT Islander

11. Phatic purposes
Sometimes language is used simply to establish or maintain
contact among people. This use of language is most
obvious in spoken communication. Language used for
phatic purposes does not necessarily seek to generate a
meaningful response. E.g. when we greet each other saying
‘hello’ or ‘good morning’ we are using language to maintain
social customs. We say ‘hello’ or ‘good morning’
automatically as a greeting even though a thunderstorm is
raging or we are on the way to chemotherapy. In the same
way, you would not expect your cheerful ‘how you doing?’
to be responded to with a litany of all the things that are
going wrong in your friend’s life. Although the phatic
purpose of language does not often apply to written
communication, in the case of letter writing, the greeting
and closure are phatic. Informal or friendly letters or e-mail
may also use expressions like ‘How are you’ or ‘hi there’
merely for phatic purposes.

12. EXAMPLE 5
Jessica: How are you?
Candice: I cool man, what about you?
Jessica: I alright.

13. Metalinguistic purposes
This is the use of language to comment on, refer to or
discuss language itself. A critique of your friend’s essay
or speech is metalinguistic, so it the blurb on the back
of a novel. When you use language to consider
language your purpose is metalinguistic.
The multiple purposes to which can be put make it the
most valuable tool of communication at our disposal.
In order to master the art of communication it is
important to master the use of language for all its
purposes.

14. EXAMPLE 6
In a tersely sardonic meta-dub poem, ‘Dubbed Out’, Jean Binta Breeze distinguishes her work from the
rub-a-dub-dub monotony of facile performance of poetry in which meaning is rubbed out in the dub:
I
Search for words
Moving
In their music
Not
Broken
By
The
Beat
The spacing of the lines jerking to a halt enacts the beating-down of sense of lyricism; the double-
entendre, ‘moving’, extends the conventional conceit of poetry as music – emotive sound – to include
the fluidity of the word released from the mechanical rigidity of the beat, and from the fix of the
page. Poetry becomes a verbal dance, transmitted word-of-muscle.
Carolyn Cooper 1993