• What is the referential function?
• Referential function examples
• Referential function resources
• Other language functions

We explain what the referential function of language is, its resources and examples. In addition, the other functions of language.

In the referential function, the indicative mood, nouns, verbs and denotation predominate.

What is the referential function?

The referential function is one of the six Language functions (its possibilities of use) identified in the information theory of 1958 by the Russian linguist and phonologist Roman Jakobson (1896-1982). These functions are related to the factors of the traditional communication scheme (that is: sender, receiver, message, code Y channel), and represent a further development of the works of the German linguist Karl Bühler (1879-1963).

The referential function of language, sometimes also called cognitive function or denotative function, corresponds to Bühler's symbolic function, and focuses on two factors of the circuit of the communication: the message and its referent or context. Since the referential function is the capacity of the language to point out or describe events and objects in the reality objective.

This is, if you like, the "normal" or "standard" function of the language, which allows the issuer to provide information concrete and objective to the receiver, in relation to the present, past or future of the world that surrounds them. In this way, it does not take into account the internal reality of the sender, nor his wishes, nor those of the receiver, but rather focuses on the real referents, in the world “outside”.

Referential function examples

The referential function predominates in cases such as the following:

• Scientific texts, educational or informative, that provide the recipient with specific information exposed in a logical and extralinguistic way, that is, using language as an instrument to point out something in the real world.
• Detailed explanations and specialized lectures, in which one person shares a knowledge, without involving your personal position in it, or requiring anything from the receiver except your attention.
• The descriptions Objectives of an environment or a person: “my son wears a navy blue T-shirt and jean pants” or “it was a dark green truck, jeep and wagoneer model”.

Referential function resources

Generally, the referential function of language is manifested through informative texts (oral or written), in which the indicative verbal mode predominates, the nouns and verbs, and the denotative meaning (that is, the primary meaning of the words, the most obvious).

In addition, deictics predominate, that is, referential words that only make sense depending on their context: pronouns ("you", "we", "this", "that", "that", etc.), adverbs circumstantial (“there”, “here”, etc.) and other determinants (“it”, “it”, “already”, etc.).

Other language functions

Excluding the referential function, Roman Jakobson also identified the following language functions:

• 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.
• Poetic function, that which enables language to generate aesthetic effects, that is, to draw attention to its own form and to the way the message is said, rather than the message itself. In that sense, it focuses on both the code and the message, and the most common example of this is found in literary texts.