- What is the poetic function of language?
- Importance of the poetic function
- Examples of poetic function
- Other language functions
We explain what the poetic function of language is, when it is used, its importance and examples. In addition, other functions of the language.
What is the poetic function of language?
The poetic function is one of the six distinct Language functions (that is, possibilities of use) identified by the Russian linguist and phonologist Roman Jakobson (1896-1982) in his 1958 information theory. Each of these functions is related to the factors of the traditional scheme of the communication (sender, receiver, message, code Y channel), and represent a further development of the works of the German linguist Karl Bühler (1879-1963).
The poetic function of language is that characteristic of the literary language, in which attention is focused on both the communicated message, as well as the code that is its own, since the poetic function pays attention mainly to the form of the language. It is also about language based on an aesthetic effect, that is, to draw attention to the very way in which a message is communicated.
However, this function of language is not exclusive to literature wave poetryIt is also typical of word games, tongue twisters and even colloquial speech, in which the form is often as important as the content. In fact, street speech is usually full of playful and creative twists, typical of the poetic function of language.
Probably an element common to all poetic uses of language are tropes or stylistic figures, rhyme, sonority and figurative senses.
Importance of the poetic function
Contrary to what it might seem, the poetic function of language is not merely decorative. Its importance lies in its playful and creative character, which allows the sender to print new and deeper layers of meaning to the message, based on a particular use of code and forms.
Thanks to this, language possesses important forces of innovation, who are constantly pushing the limits of what is possible to say, that is, constantly finding new ways of saying.
Examples of poetic function
Examples of the poetic function of language are the following cases:
- The literary pieces: stories, novels, plays, essays and especially the poetry. In them the form and the message constitute the same creative and aesthetically valuable unit.
- Tongue twisters and word games, very popular with children or language learners.
- Expressions with double meaning or figurative meaning, in which the form of what has been said can refer to various contents, allowing the sender to send "encrypted" messages that require the complicity of the receiver to understand each other.
- The speeches and other rhetorical pieces, which seek to move the audience through the way of saying things, rather than by the mere message.
- The street slang and the languages of the urban tribes, in which the creative and novel use of the forms of the language tend to abound.
Other language functions
Excluding the referential function, Roman Jakobson also identified the following language functions:
- Referential function, that which allows language to allude to objects of the reality, describe situations and express objective, concrete, verifiable contents of the world. It focuses on the message and the communicative situation.
- Emotional function, one that allows the speaker to communicate a subjective reality, emotional or interior, such as a feeling, a perception, etc. To do this, obviously, it focuses on the issuer itself.
- Appellate function, one that allows the speaker to influence the receiver in a certain way, to request from him some type of action or behavior, or at least some type of response. Logically, it focuses on the receiver.
- Phatic function, one that allows those involved in the communicative act to verify that the communication channel is open, available and viable to initiate the exchange of information. It is the first thing we do when answering a phone, for example. Therefore, it focuses on the communication channel.
- Metalinguistic function, the one that allows the language to explain itself, that is, find equivalents from one language to another, or clarify terms that the receiver does not know, or even convert elements from one language to another. It focuses on the code of communication.