What is Language?
Language is a basic tool of communication. We often communicate our concepts, judgments and reasoning through language.
Wittgenstein says,
“ We use language while giving orders, describing an object or giving its measurements, reporting an event, speculating about an event, forming and testing hypothesis, presenting the result of an experiment, making up a story, play-acting, singing, guessing riddles, telling a joke, solving a problem in arithmetic, asking, cursing, greeting, and praying.”
Basic functions of Language;
There are following basic functions of language;
Informative function.
Expressive function.
Directive function.
1. Informative Function;
Language serves informative function when it is used to convey information. We are often informed or inform others about something. And this information is obviously in a language. So this function of language is informative function.
Now this information may include false propositions, true propositions, good arguments, bad arguments etc.
2. Expressive Function;
A language serves expressive functions when it is used to convey or evoke feelings. We often express sorrows, when we say “alas!” or “what a pity!” we express our enthusiasm when we say, “That is really great!” similarly we express our awe and wonder in our prayers.
The best example of expressive function of language is poetry in which a poet conveys his/her own feelings and also evokes our feelings too.
For example,
“Nisar mai teri galion kea e watan ke jahan
chali hai rasm ke koi na sar utha ke jiye
jo chahne wala koi tawaf ko nikle
nazar chara ke chale jism-o-jan bacha ke chale”
This stanza is a selection from the poetry of Faiz Ahmed Faiz in which he is expressing his feelings about the freedom (of thought and speech) in our country during dictatorship and is evoking feelings of others as well.
3. Directive Function;
Language serves directive function when it is used to cause or prevent an action.
For example when I say “please pass me the salt” my intentions here are neither to communicate information nor to express my feelings but to cause an action, that is to say, to get the salt.
Similarly when I say “shut the window” I am giving a command as I want some result and the result is to get the window closed.
We should note that commands can be disobeyed and in order to make them more directive in function we can add polite words such as ‘please’. So when we say “please shut the window” it is more likely to be obeyed.
Language is a basic tool of communication. We often communicate our concepts, judgments and reasoning through language.
Wittgenstein says,
“ We use language while giving orders, describing an object or giving its measurements, reporting an event, speculating about an event, forming and testing hypothesis, presenting the result of an experiment, making up a story, play-acting, singing, guessing riddles, telling a joke, solving a problem in arithmetic, asking, cursing, greeting, and praying.”
Basic functions of Language;
There are following basic functions of language;
Informative function.
Expressive function.
Directive function.
1. Informative Function;
Language serves informative function when it is used to convey information. We are often informed or inform others about something. And this information is obviously in a language. So this function of language is informative function.
Now this information may include false propositions, true propositions, good arguments, bad arguments etc.
2. Expressive Function;
A language serves expressive functions when it is used to convey or evoke feelings. We often express sorrows, when we say “alas!” or “what a pity!” we express our enthusiasm when we say, “That is really great!” similarly we express our awe and wonder in our prayers.
The best example of expressive function of language is poetry in which a poet conveys his/her own feelings and also evokes our feelings too.
For example,
“Nisar mai teri galion kea e watan ke jahan
chali hai rasm ke koi na sar utha ke jiye
jo chahne wala koi tawaf ko nikle
nazar chara ke chale jism-o-jan bacha ke chale”
This stanza is a selection from the poetry of Faiz Ahmed Faiz in which he is expressing his feelings about the freedom (of thought and speech) in our country during dictatorship and is evoking feelings of others as well.
3. Directive Function;
Language serves directive function when it is used to cause or prevent an action.
For example when I say “please pass me the salt” my intentions here are neither to communicate information nor to express my feelings but to cause an action, that is to say, to get the salt.
Similarly when I say “shut the window” I am giving a command as I want some result and the result is to get the window closed.
We should note that commands can be disobeyed and in order to make them more directive in function we can add polite words such as ‘please’. So when we say “please shut the window” it is more likely to be obeyed.
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