LANGUAGE FUNCTIONS (Halliday 1975):
Halliday believed that developing language is ‘learning to mean’.
He saw that children have a motivation to learn language as it fulfils a certain need.
Halliday’s’ work is a competing viewpoint to Chomsky’s Nativism.
Instrumental Used to express a need.
(e.g I hungry.)
Regulatory Used to regulate and influence others.
(e.g Mummy give me toy.)
Help child satisfy
their needs Interactional Used to interact and form
relationships.
(e.g I love you mummy.)
Personal Used to express personal identity.
(e.g I big boy.)
Heuristic Used to gain knowledge of
environment.
(e.g What that?)
Help child come to terms Imaginative Used to create imaginary stories and
with their environment jokes.
(e.g I a big dinosaur!)
Representational Used to represent facts and
information.
(e.g That tree big.)
Halliday believed that developing language is ‘learning to mean’.
He saw that children have a motivation to learn language as it fulfils a certain need.
Halliday’s’ work is a competing viewpoint to Chomsky’s Nativism.
Instrumental Used to express a need.
(e.g I hungry.)
Regulatory Used to regulate and influence others.
(e.g Mummy give me toy.)
Help child satisfy
their needs Interactional Used to interact and form
relationships.
(e.g I love you mummy.)
Personal Used to express personal identity.
(e.g I big boy.)
Heuristic Used to gain knowledge of
environment.
(e.g What that?)
Help child come to terms Imaginative Used to create imaginary stories and
with their environment jokes.
(e.g I a big dinosaur!)
Representational Used to represent facts and
information.
(e.g That tree big.)
