Friday, September 5, 2008

Factors and Functions

I think I understand the gist of Jakobson's and Hymes' articles, I thought they were pretty abstract and I've had a hard time envisioning a speech event to which one can apply all 6 (or 7) of the Factors and Functions these authors have outlined.

Here is an example where I can apply some (hopefully I'm on the right track):

Someone in a traffic jam is experiencing road rage and yells orders to the cars in front of him. This addresser uses the expressive/emotive function to indicate his feelings about the situation, and the directive/conative function is also present because he directs imperatives toward the receivers/addressees (even though the addressees do not realize they are involved in this speech act).

If the driver says something like "come on!" or "let's go!" he is using a code (metalinguistic function) to express his wish for all the other drivers to drive faster and give him more room on the road.

The driver does not have to worry about actually upsetting anyone with his yelling because the setting is inside his own vehicle where no one can hear him. The corresponding function to this setting is context, which is one-sided in this situation because no other drivers can hear him. Therefore they don't need to understand a context to interpret the driver's words.

Some other elements I am missing include phatic (contact) function, poetic function, referential function, form of message factor, channel factor, and topic (combining Hymes and Jakobson). I was not sure how to apply all of these, nor was I sure if it was necessary to use all of them.

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