Functions of Language

• Michael Alexander Kirkwood Halliday,

aka M.A.K. Halliday (1975)
identifies seven functions that language has for
children in their early years.

• Children are motivated to acquire language

because it serves certain purposes or functions
for them.
• The first four functions help the
child to satisfy physical, emotional
and social needs:

1. instrumental
2. regulatory
3. interactional
4. personal
• The next three functions help the child to
come to terms with his or her environment :

5. heuristic
6. imaginative
7. representational