Jakobson’s Model
of Communication
What is your message doing?
A greeting opens contact. A definition clarifies a code. A request seeks action. Explore the six functions of language—and learn to recognise how they work together.
In this chapter · Open the contents
Read the work that language performs.
- Identify Jakobson’s six factors and match them to the six functions.
- Distinguish contact, code and referential context in an exchange.
- Explain how functions overlap and how a dominant function is judged.
- Recognise poetic patterning beyond literary poetry.
- Analyse classroom, media and digital examples without assuming unmeasured effects.
A message does more than carry information.
A teacher opens an online class: “Good morning. Can everyone hear me? Today we are discussing framing. By ‘frame,’ I mean the way an account selects and organises an issue. Please compare these two headlines.”
The teacher greets the class, checks contact, introduces a topic, explains a term and requests an action. One short opening performs several kinds of communicative work. Calling all of it “information transfer” would flatten these differences.
The model comes from Roman Jakobson’s essay Linguistics and Poetics, published in 1960 in Thomas A. Sebeok’s edited volume Style in Language. It gives us a framework for examining language in conversation, teaching, journalism, advertising and verbal art.
Two questions guide the analysis
What makes this exchange possible? Identify the addresser, addressee, message, context, code and contact. What does the utterance foreground? Examine its expressive, directive, informative, contact-oriented, code-explaining or formally patterned work.
These are factors and functions, not six steps through which a message travels. Nor must a message perform only one function. A request can express irritation, convey information and use a memorable turn of phrase at the same time.
This chapter develops Dr. USP’s lecture using the supplied transcript and checks the terminology against Jakobson’s essay. The contemporary examples, diagrams and learning activities are original teaching material. Scenarios are fictional unless identified as scholarly discussion.
Start with the exchange, before naming its functions.
Imagine a teacher saying to students in a seminar, “Please upload your analysis by Friday.” The utterance refers to a task, uses words the participants need to understand, and depends on some means of contact. The six factors let us unpack that arrangement.
| Factor | What to identify | In the seminar example |
|---|---|---|
| Addresser | The person or source addressing someone through the utterance. | The teacher speaking to the class. |
| Addressee | The person or audience being addressed. | The students asked to submit the analysis. |
| Message | The verbal expression being communicated, including its wording and arrangement. | “Please upload your analysis by Friday.” |
| Context | What the message refers to: the relevant subject matter or situation that can be grasped through language. | The analysis task, its submission and the intended deadline. |
| Code | The linguistic conventions shared fully or partly by the participants. | English, the meaning of “analysis,” and the understood use of “upload.” |
| Contact | The physical channel and psychological connection that enable communication to begin and continue. | An audible classroom exchange in which students can attend to the speaker. |
Context is more than the room
In ordinary speech, “context” can mean everything surrounding an event. In this model, pay particular attention to what the message is about. A classroom message can refer to a distant election, a fictional character or an event last year. Its referential context is not exhausted by the classroom’s physical location.
A shared code need not be perfectly shared
A teacher and student may both know English yet interpret “analysis” differently. One expects a reasoned examination; the other prepares a summary. Their code overlaps, but an important term remains unsettled. The model makes this a question to investigate rather than a guarantee of mutual understanding.
Contact requires more than equipment
An active microphone supplies part of the physical arrangement. It does not establish that the intended audience is attending. Conversely, a request to re-establish attention can matter even when the equipment works. Psychological connection here concerns being in communicative contact; it does not require affection or agreement.
Match each factor with its associated function.
Read the central relation: an addresser addresses an addressee through a message. Context, contact and code are involved in the same event. These boxes represent relationships, not a chronological sequence.
Teaching adaptation of the arrangement in Jakobson’s Linguistics and Poetics. The short explanatory questions are added for this chapter.
| Factor | Function | Focus of the function |
|---|---|---|
| Addresser | Emotive / expressive | The speaker’s attitude or stance. |
| Addressee | Conative | Addressing, requesting or directing the recipient. |
| Context | Referential | The subject matter referred to. |
| Message | Poetic | The organisation and perceptible form of the message. |
| Contact | Phatic | Establishing, prolonging, checking or ending contact. |
| Code | Metalingual / metalinguistic | The language or conventions being used. |
Ask what the language foregrounds.
Use the same three moves for each function: identify its focus, examine the wording, and state what the classification does—and does not—establish.
Emotive
“What a relief!”
The expression foregrounds the speaker’s attitude. Interjections, emphasis and intonation can contribute, but emotive language is not confined to exclamations.
Read carefully: An expressed feeling may be sincere, performed or ironic. Language alone does not verify the speaker’s inner experience.
Conative
“Please send the revised headline.”
The utterance addresses the recipient and seeks an action. Commands, requests and forms of address are useful places to look.
Read carefully: A request can fail. Identifying conative language does not establish that the audience complied or changed its attitude.
Referential
“The workshop begins at ten.”
The statement foregrounds something being referred to: a workshop and its starting time. Ask what situation or subject the expression presents.
Read carefully: Referential language can be inaccurate. Classifying its function does not confirm the truth of its content.
Poetic
“Clear claims. Careful checks.”
The repeated sounds and parallel phrasing make the verbal arrangement noticeable. Examine how words are selected and combined.
Read carefully: Poetic does not mean only beautiful or literary. Patterned language can appear in a slogan, joke, headline or instruction.
Phatic
“Hello—are you still there?”
The expression opens or checks contact. Greetings, conversational continuers and closings can help manage the connection.
Read carefully: Phatic language is not automatically meaningless. Maintaining contact can matter greatly to the participants.
Metalingual
“By ‘source,’ I mean the person or document supplying the information.”
The speaker uses language to explain an expression or check a convention. The code itself becomes an object of discussion.
Read carefully: Not every explanation is metalingual. Explaining a word differs from explaining why an event occurred.
These short examples foreground particular functions for teaching purposes. In a fuller exchange, additional functions may also matter. Support your interpretation with the wording and the situation rather than treating the examples as a list of automatic labels.
One utterance can do several things at once.
The model becomes more useful when we stop forcing every sentence into a single box. Consider a fictional teacher addressing a class:
“Hello, everyone. I’m delighted to see you. The workshop starts at ten. Here, ‘source’ means the person or document supplying the information. Read the claim. Check the source. Weigh the evidence.”
| Passage | Foregrounded function | Reason for the interpretation |
|---|---|---|
| “Hello, everyone.” | Phatic | It opens contact with the class; the form of address also orients towards the audience. |
| “I’m delighted to see you.” | Emotive | It expresses the speaker’s stated attitude while also helping establish rapport. |
| “The workshop starts at ten.” | Referential | It presents the starting time as information about the workshop. |
| “Here, ‘source’ means…” | Metalingual | It specifies how a term is being used. |
| “Read the claim. Check the source. Weigh the evidence.” | Conative, with poetic patterning | The imperatives direct activity; their repeated grammatical shape makes the wording stand out. |
What does “dominant” mean?
Dominance concerns which function chiefly organises the expression in the exchange being analysed. It does not necessarily mean the function represented by the largest number of words. A short command can organise a long announcement around an action.
Different analysts may weigh the same evidence differently. State the basis of your judgement. If the verbal form becomes the main object of attention, a poetic reading gains strength. If the same patterned phrase primarily directs an immediate classroom task, a conative reading may be stronger.
Listen to how the words have been put together.
A slogan can urge action while making its wording difficult to overlook. A joke can supply information while turning on an unexpected repetition. This is why the poetic function belongs in the study of ordinary communication as well as poetry.
Compare two original classroom slogans
“Check a claim before sharing it.”
The instruction directs an action. You can examine its phrasing, but its immediate emphasis is easy to read as conative.
“Pause. Probe. Pass it on?”
Repeated initial sounds, short parallel units and a final question make the wording noticeable. The instruction remains, while the poetic work becomes more prominent.
Neither version automatically produces better recall, sound judgement or changed behaviour. Those are empirical questions. The comparison establishes a difference in verbal organisation that could be investigated.
Research extension: selection and combination
Jakobson’s fuller discussion relates poetic language to two operations: choosing among possible expressions and arranging the chosen expressions into a sequence. A simplified classroom illustration helps separate them.
Which expression?
A writer can choose “check,” “test” or “examine.” The choice draws on alternatives that overlap in meaning but differ in sound, rhythm and association.
Which arrangement?
The writer places selected words together. In “Pause. Probe. Pass it on?” comparable sounds and grammatical shapes become conspicuous across the sequence.
For an advanced reading, follow how Jakobson connects equivalence among alternatives with patterning in the sequence. The short slogan illustrates one accessible route into that argument; it is not a complete account of poetic language.
Do not confuse contact, code and context.
Many classification errors begin when an analyst notices that a question seeks a response and immediately calls it conative. Consider what the response is meant to settle.
| Expression | Likely emphasis | What is being settled? |
|---|---|---|
| “Are you still on the line?” | Phatic | Whether contact continues. |
| “What does ‘embargo’ mean here?” | Metalingual | How an expression is being used. |
| “When does the embargo end?” | Referential | The time of an event or condition being discussed. |
| “Please send the report now.” | Conative | An action requested from the addressee. |
1 · Phatic does not mean “pointless”
A greeting can establish the possibility of a difficult conversation. A farewell can mark its closure. A repeated “yes, I’m listening” can sustain the exchange. Such expressions may carry little new information about an external event while still doing important communicative work.
2 · Metalingual does not mean “any explanation”
“An embargo is a restriction on publication until a stated time” explains a term and foregrounds the code. “The editor delayed publication because the evidence was incomplete” explains an event and foregrounds its subject matter. Both explain something; their objects differ.
Multilingual conversation supplies clear examples. A Hindi speaker may ask whether “कल” means yesterday or tomorrow in a particular sentence. Discussing the word’s meaning is metalingual. Identifying the actual date of the appointment supplies referential clarification. One repair can involve both.
3 · Referential does not mean “proven true”
“The seminar begins at nine” can be wrong and still be predominantly referential. Check the timetable to assess accuracy. Use the model to describe the utterance’s orientation. Keep those tasks connected without collapsing one into the other.
Follow the functions through three exchanges.
Each case shows how a communicative event can shift its emphasis. Open the analysis after making your own notes. These are fictional teaching scenarios, not findings about an institution or campaign.
Case 1 · The online seminar
Teacher: “Good morning. Can you hear me?”
Student: “Yes. What do you mean by ‘frame’?”
Teacher: “Here, a frame selects and organises aspects of an issue. Please compare these two headlines.”
- Contact
- The opening checks whether teacher and student can communicate; its prominent function is phatic.
- Code
- The student asks about a term, and the teacher explains its use. Both turns foreground metalingual work.
- Addressee
- The final request directs students towards a comparison and foregrounds the conative function.
- Context
- The exchange refers to framing and two headlines. These supply subject matter across several turns.
What the model cannot establish: whether the students have understood framing. Ask for an explanation or a fresh application, rather than treating an audible “yes” as evidence of conceptual grasp.
Case 2 · The campus verification campaign
Poster text: “Pause. Probe. Pass it on? Join the verification workshop in Room 12 at ten.”
- Poetic
- The repeated initial sounds and compact parallel units foreground the wording.
- Conative
- The poster directs an action and invites attendance.
- Referential
- The room and starting time present information about the workshop.
- Code
- Readers need to understand “verification” and the implied question about sharing.
Interpretation to defend: the whole poster may be predominantly conative because it recruits participants, even though its opening uses conspicuous poetic patterning.
Evidence still needed: attention, recall, attendance and verification behaviour are different outcomes. The linguistic analysis alone measures none of them.
Case 3 · The newsroom briefing
Editor: “Everyone, listen for a moment. I’m concerned about this draft. By ‘confirmed,’ I mean supported by an identified source and a second check. Send the revised copy by four.”
- Opening
- The editor addresses the team and requests attention. Conative and contact-managing work can overlap.
- Stance
- “I’m concerned” explicitly presents the editor’s attitude: an emotive emphasis.
- Definition
- The explanation of “confirmed” foregrounds the code: a metalingual emphasis.
- Directive
- The final imperative foregrounds the addressee and the requested action: a conative emphasis.
Power question: why is the editor entitled to set the deadline and define the newsroom’s working standard? Jakobson’s categories can describe the utterance, but analysing authority also requires information about institutional roles and practice.
Apply the lens without enlarging its claims.
Group chats, video calls and AI interfaces make the distinctions easy to observe. They also reveal why an analysis of language should not be mistaken for a complete account of a platform or a mind.
A platform feature is not a linguistic function
A “typing…” indicator may encourage a user to wait, but it is not itself a verbal utterance in Jakobson’s original scheme. You can investigate it as a contact-related design cue, provided you explain that you are extending the framework beyond its original verbal focus.
The same care applies to emojis, layout, images and music. Study their contribution to the whole event, but do not assume that the six verbal functions fully describe every visual or technical feature.
An interface greeting can manage contact
“Hello—how can I help?” can serve a phatic and conative role in an interface exchange. Describing those textual functions does not establish companionship, reciprocal understanding or emotional concern. The analysis concerns the expression and its use.
AI-generated emotion is not evidence of felt emotion
If an AI system produces “I’m delighted to help,” an analyst can examine the expressive stance presented by the text. That observation does not demonstrate that the system experiences delight. Keep the language’s function separate from a claim about an inner state.
A code explanation can still be wrong
An AI answer that defines “sampling frame” is performing metalingual work insofar as it explains a term. Whether the definition is accurate requires a source check. Whether the learner understands it requires an appropriate learning task. Three questions—function, accuracy and understanding—need three kinds of evidence.
Use the model to sharpen a question.
Different kinds of verbal work.
- It widens analysis beyond the movement of information.
- It makes contact and code-checking visible.
- It connects ordinary language with verbal art.
- It allows several functions to coexist in the same expression.
- It gives students a clear vocabulary for explaining a reading.
The conditions and consequences.
- It does not by itself predict comprehension, persuasion or behaviour.
- Its schematic arrangement does not fully model turn-taking, repair or feedback over time.
- It does not explain institutional power merely by naming an addresser.
- Its original verbal focus needs care when extended to other sign systems.
- Classifications can remain contested when the unit or context is unclear.
Connect the model to other USP Classroom chapters
| Chapter | Question it helps foreground | Relation to this chapter |
|---|---|---|
| Jakobson’s Model | Which factor does the language foreground? | Examine functions within an utterance or text. |
| Westley–MacLean Model | How are environmental events selected and mediated? | Move from verbal function towards the organisation of mediated communication. |
| Ritual Model | How do symbolic practices sustain and negotiate a social world? | Extend the contact question towards participation, belonging and cultural continuity. |
| Gerbner’s Model | How does an event become perceived and represented? | Examine relations among events, perception and the statements made about them. |
Phatic communication and the ritual view are related avenues of inquiry, but they are not synonyms. Jakobson identifies an orientation towards contact within verbal communication. Ritual analysis asks a broader set of questions about shared practices and cultural life.
Track the factors. Then listen for their functions.
Watch Dr. USP’s Jakobson’s Model of Communication Explained. Keep the six pairings beside you and annotate one example for each.
If the player is unavailable, open the lecture on YouTube ↗. The viewing cues follow the supplied transcript; timings are approximate. This chapter uses the standard spellings Jakobson, conative and phatic.
| Approximate cue | Listen for | Record one response |
|---|---|---|
| 00:00–03:55 | The six factors and the role of code, contact and context. | Map a short classroom exchange onto the six factors. |
| 03:55–06:20 | The functions associated with addresser and addressee. | Distinguish an expressed attitude from a request for action. |
| 06:20–09:15 | Referential, poetic and phatic functions. | Find one utterance with two plausible functions and defend the dominant one. |
| 09:15–11:45 | Metalingual discussion and the summary of the model. | Write the six factor–function pairs without looking at the chapter. |
Classify the expression. Explain the choice.
Choose an answer before opening the explanation. These self-check questions do not collect responses or store a score.
01 Which pairing is correct?
Reveal answer and explanation
Answer: C. The conative function is oriented towards the addressee; requests and commands are useful examples.
02 During a disrupted call, “Are you still there?” most clearly foregrounds:
Reveal answer and explanation
Answer: A. In this setting the speaker is checking whether contact continues. The context supports a phatic interpretation.
03 “By ‘sample,’ I mean the cases selected for this study” is primarily:
Reveal answer and explanation
Answer: D. The term and its use become the object of explanation. A grammatical pronoun does not automatically determine the dominant function.
04 Which statement about the poetic function is accurate?
Reveal answer and explanation
Answer: B. Poetic patterning is not confined to poetry. Its effects on memory or action require separate evidence.
05 A statement gives the wrong starting time for a seminar. It:
Reveal answer and explanation
Answer: C. Function and truth are different analytical questions. The statement can refer to the seminar’s time while getting that time wrong.
06 A student ignores “Please submit the essay today.” What follows?
Reveal answer and explanation
Answer: A. A directive addresses an action to a recipient. Compliance is a possible consequence, not a requirement for identifying the orientation.
07 Which description of the six-factor diagram is best?
Reveal answer and explanation
Answer: D. The arrangement shows factors and their relations. It is not a timeline or a six-stage processing sequence.
08 Why might “Read the claim. Check the source. Weigh the evidence” involve two functions?
Reveal answer and explanation
Answer: B. Conative direction and poetic patterning can coexist. Which dominates depends on the unit and context being analysed.
09 An AI interface produces “I’m delighted to help.” Linguistic analysis alone establishes:
Reveal answer and explanation
Answer: C. Describing an expressive function does not demonstrate an inner state or the recipient’s experience.
10 What is the best way to justify a dominant-function classification?
Reveal answer and explanation
Answer: A. A defensible interpretation specifies what was analysed and why the evidence supports that reading.
Build an analysis another reader can examine.
Activity 1 · Write six versions
Take the topic “a research workshop.” Write a short expression that foregrounds each function: state a fact about the workshop, express an attitude, request an action, open contact, explain a term and create a patterned phrase. Then identify the factor associated with each version.
Finally, combine several versions into one announcement. Explain which function organises the whole announcement and why that judgement differs from the classification of individual sentences.
Activity 2 · Annotate a real exchange
Select a short public interview, classroom announcement, advertisement or exchange recorded with permission. Work with a manageable unit: around ten conversational turns or a short text.
- Preserve the wording. Transcribe accurately. Record pauses, emphasis or other features only where they support your analysis.
- Describe the setting. Identify the addresser, addressee, message, context, code and means of contact.
- Set the unit. Decide whether you will classify turns, sentences or another clearly defined segment.
- Mark the evidence. Quote the relevant words and explain the function you read in them.
- Allow overlap. Distinguish a proposed dominant function from additional functions. Record ambiguous cases.
- Limit the inference. Do not infer comprehension, agreement, sincerity or behavioural change from a category label.
| Unit and wording | Proposed function | Evidence and alternative reading |
|---|---|---|
| 1. “Are you with me?” | Phatic, provisionally. | If spoken after a connection problem, it checks contact. After a difficult explanation, it could instead invite evidence of understanding. |
| 2. “What does ‘unit’ mean?” | Metalingual. | The question makes a word’s meaning the object of inquiry; it also requests a reply. |
| 3. “Open the second document.” | Conative. | The imperative directs an action. Whether the recipient opens it must be observed separately. |
Research extension · Compare two analysts
Write a short coding guide that defines the unit and explains how to handle overlapping functions. Ask two analysts to classify the same sample independently. Compare their judgements, including where they disagree about dominance.
Use disagreement to locate a problem: was the context missing, the unit too large, or the rule unclear? Revise the guide with reasons. For a formal study, report an agreement measure suited to whether codes are single-label or overlapping, and retain the distinction between reliability and validity.
Do not convert every disagreement into a mistake. A passage may sustain more than one defensible reading. The task is to make the evidence and decision rules visible.
Examination and discussion prompts
- Short answer: List the six factor–function pairs and illustrate any two.
- Application: Distinguish phatic, metalingual and referential work in an online class.
- Essay: Explain why the poetic function extends beyond poetry, using original examples.
- Critical discussion: What can Jakobson’s model reveal about a message, and what would require separate evidence?
Keep the vocabulary close to the exchange.
- Addresser
- The person or source addressing an addressee through an utterance.
- Addressee
- The person or audience being addressed.
- Context
- The subject matter or situation referred to and available to linguistic understanding.
- Code
- Linguistic conventions shared fully or partly by participants.
- Contact
- The physical channel and psychological connection enabling communication.
- Emotive
- Oriented towards the addresser’s expressed attitude or stance; also called expressive.
- Conative
- Oriented towards the addressee, as in addressing, requesting or commanding.
- Referential
- Oriented towards the subject matter referred to; not a certificate of truth.
- Poetic
- Oriented towards the message’s own form and organisation.
- Phatic
- Oriented towards establishing, sustaining, checking or ending contact.
- Metalingual
- Oriented towards the code itself; also called metalinguistic.
- Dominant function
- The function judged chiefly to organise the expression within the unit and setting analysed.
Primary reading and source records
- Jakobson, R. (1960). Closing statement: Linguistics and poetics. In T. A. Sebeok (Ed.), Style in language (pp. 350–377). MIT Press. Max Planck publication record ↗ · Publisher’s record for the volume ↗
Start with the six factors, their associated functions and the relation between dominance and overlap.
- Jakobson, R. (1987). Linguistics and poetics. In K. Pomorska & S. Rudy (Eds.), Language in literature (pp. 62–94). Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. (Original work published 1960). University-hosted scan ↗
This is a reprint of the same essay, with different pagination. In this scan, the model and functions appear around the book’s pages 66–71. Continue beyond those pages for the fuller discussion of poetic language.
- Dr. USP. Jakobson’s model of communication explained [Video]. YouTube. Watch the lecture ↗
Use alongside the chapter’s viewing guide and examples. The uploaded transcript supplies the lecture material used here.
The chapter in six statements
- Jakobson relates six factors of verbal communication to six functions of language.
- A factor is part of the communicative event; a function names an orientation towards it.
- Most expressions can involve more than one function.
- Dominance is a judgement about how a particular expression is organised.
- Poetic work extends beyond poetry, while phatic and metalingual work help sustain communication.
- Function analysis does not by itself verify truth, sincerity, understanding or effects.
From what language does to how meaning takes shape.
Jakobson directs attention to the different kinds of work performed through language. Gerbner’s Model follows how events become perceptions and representations. The Ritual Model asks how communication sustains a shared social world. For a broader map of approaches, return to the Seven Traditions of Communication Theory.
Take one classroom exchange through all three lenses. Notice what each lets you see—and which questions remain open.
Back to the chapter opening ↑