ABSTRACT
Every speaker develops a model of what functions language can serve, and he uses that model to filter out unacceptable responses. The language people would need to get by on would consist of requests and complaints, not of statements of fact about the world. Another advantage of a simple structure like this is that it may be used as a framework for classroom activity. After all language only has a variety of functions because speakers have a variety of needs, and these needs must be in the forefront of a writer's mind when he is constructing a text. The ability to use a language function not just to achieve an end, but as a means for realizing a different function is obviously something that is acquired slowly and with difficulty. In fact the way the writer constantly returns to the intended function shows that she does have a grasp of it, but chooses to subordinate it to others.
