Language functions and values

Language comprises functions, which linguists have attempted to delineate. For instance, Karl Buehler proposed three functions: expressive, which consists of an outward display of an inner state; signaling, which aims to elicit a reaction from others; and descriptive, which conveys detail about the way things are perceived. Buehler further argued that these three functions exist in a hierarchy because signaling entails expression and describing entails both expression and signaling. Furthermore, each function takes one of two possible antithetical values. Specifically, (self-)expression is either revealing or concealing, signaling effective or ineffective, and description true or false.

Karl Popper augmented Buehler’s hierarchy through proposing the argumentative function of language. For Popper, an argument serves as an expression in that it is a sign of a person’s internal state. It is also a signal insofar as it provokes a response from those who consider it. When it is about something or someone, an argument is descriptive. Finally, there is the argumentative function proper, the giving of reasons for holding a particular view.

Robert Spillane added two functions to Popper’s conceptualization: advisory and promissory. More precisely, recommendations require reasons and, thus, advising entails argumentation. Furthermore, statements of the type “you should” (advice) presuppose “you can” (description), establishing description as subordinate to advising. Finally, intentions or promises rest on recommendations (“I will” implies “I should”).

Speakers cannot operate at a given level of the linguistic hierarchy without simultaneously activating (even if implicitly) subordinate levels. Furthermore, in a two-party oral exchange, each protagonist manifests an orientation with respect to the two values these functions take—that is, each party instantiates the language functions in one or the other of their binary forms. These orientations do not necessarily align. For example, a manager may say “You missed our meeting yesterday” (true descriptive statement), to which the colleague may disingenuously respond “Yes, but I didn’t know we had one” (false descriptive statement).

(Adapted from Joullié, J.-E., Gould, A. M. & Spillane, R. 2022. The language of executive coaching: A developmental framework. Academy of Management Learning and Education, 21(4): 1-15.)