Tuesday, 27 September 2016

Hallidays functions of speech


Hallidays Functions of speech


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.

2 comments:

  1. It's really promising that you can see the ambiguity in "I can't get it up dere" - it could even be regulatory or personal, so try and extend the alternative interpretations.

    "what's that lasagne" is an interrogative rather than an inperative - it needs discussion (although I think you're right) about whether it is representational or heuristic. Don't use caps but you can use inverted commas around the categories if it is clearer. You would need to use dounle quotes for quotes if you are going to use inverted commas that way - I would recommend that for clarity.

    May have used not 'may of used' - Zach is clearly saying "of" at the moment and we have discussed how much 'may've' sounds like 'may of' and how it is really short for 'may have'.

    It's probably a typo or autocorrect but it's 'over-extension by category' rather than 'over-expending'. Explore more why he uses this as well as "bolognay" rather than 'bolognaise'.

    Good application of theory. Be more tentative e.g. 'seems to be Halliday's imaginative function'.

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  2. Also, use two reputable sources, please, or at least check the revision site against a reputable source. Can you find a site that has a different 'interactional' quote?

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