The Language Impact - Evolution -- System -- Discourse - Alwin Frank Fill
2. Functional Models of Language
The Language Impact - Evolution -- System -- Discourse - Alwin Frank Fill
Alwin Frank Fill [+]
University of Graz
Alwin Frank Fill is Professor Emeritus of English Linguistics at the University of Graz, Austria. His previous books include Ökolinguistik: Eine Einführung (Gunter Narr, 1993), Das Prinzip Spannung (Gunter Narr, 2003 (2nd ed. 2007)) and (co-edited together with Peter Muhlhäusler) The Ecolinguistics Reader (Continuum, 2001).
Description
As we saw in Chapter 1, the needs to be fulfilled which caused language to emerge developed into the ‘functions’ of language, i.e. the ‘things we do’ with language. Functions are ‘meanings in and on the world’. ‘Function’ implies purpose, but also activity and can thus be equated with ‘dynamic use’. An example of the dynamic use of language will introduce our discussion of functional models of language.