The Study of Language Functions

The Study of Language Functions

1. Language Functions

   • Semantic relationships
     • consists of the meaning of those relationships about people, their actions, and their objects within a context or setting
       • Cognitively, children think only about the way they act in relationship to the objects in their world.
   • Problems with acquiring basic semantic relationships
     • A lack of language development affects the social and cognitive development and the lack of social affects language acquisition.
       • When the meaning of a basic semantic relationship expands, then the child develops higher thinking
   • Extended semantic relationships
     • the baby as he grows, also expands his language, adding more words
       • the baby after two years is more specific when speaking
     • Social intentions: a more structured language
       • Greeting
       • Rejecting
       • Denying
       • Negating
       • Requesting
     • Preoperational cognition
       • the child is learning sentence structures, but it is not explained how the language works

2. Expanded Language Functions

   • The child learns critical thinking and solves problems
     • All concepts expand in meaning through language function
   • Displacement
     • Is a language function that increases development of conceptual meanings the use of semantics
   • Semanticity
     • Increases over the life of a person so concepts increase in meaning and new meanings continue to develop as part of language function.
   • Flexibility
     • Move ideas and the meaning into complex ideas across time and space
   • Productivity
     • Person become more productive, because is able to use language to create a variety of linguistic forms for literacy. For example, to send a message to someone who is not in the here-and-now
   • Redundancy
     • Concepts increase in meaning to the point where they must become a new concept.
       • People can be very specific and efficient in conveying messages to others.

3. Concrete cognition

   • Is the development of the management of increasingly complex concepts

4. Speech acts

   • the child has more words to be more conversational

5. Expanded speech acts

   • the child learns to have a speech and learns to debate and argue ideas