A task or a role, action or a way of action in which the task or the role is executed. Also, the relation between two variables.
Roman Jakobson discerns six possible functions of people’s communication:
- When the communication is oriented (directed) towards the addresser or the one who is sending the message there is the so-called emotive function.
- When the communication is directed toward the addressee (the receiver of the message) – it is called conative function.
- If the communication is directed towards the context – it is called referential function.
- When the communication is directed towards the contact or channel of communication – it is called phatic function.
- If the communication is directed towards the code, facilitating the interaction, this is a metalinguistic function (also, metasemiotic function)
- And if the communication is oriented toward the message itself it is a poetic (aesthetic) function.
The term function is of crucial importance in Narratology
See also: Actant
