Hallidays functions of speech

Hallidays Functions of speech

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Instrumental

Child uses language to express their needs.
Directly concerned with obtaining food, drink and comfort (e.g.) 'want juice.'

Regulatory

Child uses language to influence the behaviour of others.
Persuading/commanding/requesting others to do things (eg) 'go away.'

Interactional

Child uses language to develop social relationships and ease the process of interaction.
Concerned with the phatic dimension of talk (eg) 'I love you.'

Personal

Child uses language to express personal preferences and individual identity (eg) 'I am good.'
Sometimes referred to as the 'Here I am!' function - announcing oneself to the world.

Representational

Child uses language to exchange information. Concerned with relaying or requesting facts and information.

 Heuristic

Child uses language to learn of and explore the environment and to learn.
This may be questions and answers, or the kind of running commentary that frequently accompanies children's play (eg) 'What is the tractor doing?'

Imaginative

Child uses language to tell stories and jokes, and to create an imaginary environment.
May also accompany play as children create imaginary worlds, or may arise from storytelling.

In the Zachy transcript, Zachy uses a declarative to exchange information ‘I can’t get it up dere’. This is one of Hallidays representational functions of speech due to Zachy relaying information. Because Halla response with an interrogative ‘shall I help?’ implies that Zachy meant it as a cloaked imperative, making it seem as though Zachy was secretly asking for help. This therefore will convert the representational into an Instrumental as Zachy is using his language to express his needs.

Zachy uses Regulatory speech to influence the behaviour of Halla by using the verb ‘look’. This imperative Zachy uses requests Halla to ‘look’.

‘I don’t like bolognay’ is a form of Hallidays personal functions of speech due to Zachy expressing his personal preference. This declarative expresses how Zachy does not like Bolognese and uses a substitution for the concrete noun ‘Bolognese’ as he cannot pronounce it correctly.

Zachy uses an imperative to learn about his environment ‘mummy? What’s that lasagne?’ and uses the concrete noun ‘lasagne’ via over-expending category to understand why the food looks like lasagne. This is one of Hallidays Heuristic functions of speech.

When Halla talks to Zachy, she uses imaginative when talking to Zachy about the book ‘oh we’re in the railway station’. This uses imaginative as it creates an imaginary environment. Halla may of used this function to connect to Zachy more because children like to imagine themselves as being someone/somewhere else.

Stages of CLA

When a child is 2-4 months old, they start to make "comfort noises". These noises are usually for when the child is in contact with their caregiver therefore in response to them. This includes grunts and sighs being the earliest comfort sounds and 'coos' being later sounds.


When the child reaches around 7 months old, the infant extends their sounds to " canonical babbling" . This is when they extend their sounds by oral articulations and turning them into syllable-like sequences by opening and closing their jaws, lips and tongue.


At 10 months old, infants begin to utter words. They also use words that are not recognized in todays language. This word-like vocalizations  may consistently used by infants to express particular emotional states.