Chapter 10

Language has a wide variety of functions that helps convey verbal communication. These fundamental units of language and communication created by Roman Jakobson are the addresser, the message, the addressee, the context, the contact, and the code. The addresser sends the message to the addressee, so the addresser is the sender of the message, the message is the content sent, and the addressee is the receiver of the message. The addresser is responsible for catching the addressee's attention. Therefore, the emotive function is for the speaker to have an expressive attitude toward whatever he or she is speaking about. The message requires a context (or referent), which is the circumstance in which the message is given. This is the main denotative, cognitive function that is the leading task in most messages. A code is understood by both the addresser and the addressee and a contact is the channel in which the message is sent. This enables both the addresser and the addressee to remain in communication. I agree with Jakobson's ideas because it is true that in order to communicate, there has to be messages sent. There has to be an addressor or sender to communicate the message and there has to be someone to send the message to (addressee or receiver).

Robert Scholes studied Jakobson's ideas and concluded that even if we know the code, we must still receive the message. Sometimes, the message can be interpreted in different ways. This unites the sender and the receiver, but the sender must be sure that the meaning must be the same as what he intended in the message. An example of this would be in advertisements. Advertisers may try to send a message, but the receivers (consumers) may not understand the real meaning of the message, or they may not realize they are decoding a message at all.