Halliday’s Function of

Language Theory
Submitted By:
 Mustaqeem Sajid (2017-ME-
180)
 Khurram Shahzad (2017-ME-
193)
 Arbaz Khan (2017-ME-
195)
 Asshad Latif (2017-ME-
176)
  Haris Dar (2017-ME-
197)
Submitted To:
Prof. Jamil Akhtar
o Halliday’s Theory of Language
Development:
M.A.K Halliday is a linguist who developed the
theory of language development. In this theory, he
stated that how children interact has meaning. And
that meaning then translates to their speech.

o Phase-1
This phase is called the Protolanguage Stage. It
includes the instrumental, the regulatory, the
interactional, the personal, and the imaginative
functions. In this phase, children prefer bally convey
intentions and desires. The children are using
protolanguage to construct meaning from their
experiences.

o Phase-2
This is the called the Transitional Stage. Once the
child reaches thus stage, they now use grammatical
structures, but not as advanced stage 3.Their words
will begin to take on multifunctional properties.
They also have a use of dialogue. This part of the
stage is about adopting, assigning and then
accepting or rejecting roles given to them. Children
move out of this phase once they have understood
the principles of grammar and dialogue.

o Phase-3
In this phase, children are able to take their
experiences and apply meaning to them. Here,
children are moving into the adult language system.
Halliday states that children move from Child to
Speaker in this stage.
 o Instrumental
Children use language to satisfy a personal need
and to get things done.
It means to want goods and services
 Example:
Cookie mommy…..
I want …..
Want juice…..
Want feeder…...

o Regulatory
Children use language to control the behavior of
others.
 Examples:
No sleep now.
Do this.
Go away
 Come here
What happened?
o Interactional
Children use language to get along with others.
 Example:
You want to play?
Me and you.
Love you, Mummy.
Love you, Father.
I need hug.

o Personal
Children use language to tell about themselves.
 Example:
I’m running now.
Watch me.
Me good girl.
I will go with you.
 I need help.
I need food.

o Heuristic
Children use language to find out about things to
learn things.
 Example:
What are cows for?
What’s that?
What is the tractor doing?
What are they doing?
Where are they going?
When they will arrive?
What I will do now?

o Imaginative
Children use language to pretend, to make believe.
  Example:
Let’s play space.
Pretend to be a super hero.
I am batman.
He is superman.
He is flying.

o Informative
Children use language to communicate something
for the information of others.
 Example:
I’ll tell you how the game works.
I have got something to tell you.
He is not doing well.
I can teach you how to deal with it.
They are doing well.