The Poetic Function Of Language

Language is a fascinating phenomenon. Human beings have been using language since times immemorial. It has become an obvious part of our existence, our identity, our ideology, and our control and authority. To speak in terms of linguistic studies, language is “a system of conventional, spoken or written symbols”; it is “a set of finite or infinite sentences, each finite in length, and constructed out of a finite set of elements”. A language is a particular code, which we operate through the possession of the faculty of speech, and it is important to note that languages have underlying structural rules that make meaningful communication possible. Similarly, there exist six functions of language, as put forward by the Russian-American linguist

These factors are also known as target factors. In the case of the poetic function of language, the target factor is the message itself which encompasses “semelfactive parole, the given discourse, the text”. Now, the definition of the poetic function should, as with all statements by Jakobson, be taken as relational: in the poetic function, in relation to and as against the five other functions of language, there is a dominance of a focus upon the message. It is necessary to point out here that the poetic function is not confined to poetry, although all poetry has dominance of the poetic function. The poetic function may occur elsewhere as well. Sometimes, it assumes a secondary role in the referential function of language. For example, phrases such as ‘through thick and thin’, ‘raining cats and dogs’, ‘lucky Laura’ owe their success as much to their poetic basis, as to their referential one. One should not be mistaken and the poetic function of language should not be strictly tied with ‘great poetry’. Often children across all cultures go through a process of language acquisition in which they are seen to inventing or repeating rhymes, playing with sounds. This asserts the role of poetic function in the very process of language learning and acquisition itself. In a more general understanding of the poetic function of language, it appeals to our

From this point of view, the notion of closure is evident in the poetic function, the relative autonomy of the poem as a dynamic structure, the autotelic and autoreferential nature of the poem - all of these are related to the fact that the poem as a system of signs is a structural whole. To apprehend the poetic function of language and its distinction from other functions, it is imperative to look at certain key areas which define and determine the area and reign of poetic communication in