4. Conative function
Also called directive function, conative function centres the
message on the addressee. In that case, the speaker wants to produce a certain
effect on his interlocutor: to get something from him/her (in the case of an
order or a command for instance), or to implicate him. In fact, this function
is mainly represented by the use of imperative, apostrophe, and vocative. But
in this section, our work will be concerned with imperative and apostrophe.
Imperative describes the mood or a form of a verb that
expresses a command or request. Indeed, Buchi Emecheta's The Slave Girl
has a lot of sentences applying the conative function. These are used for
different purposes. Some sentences are sometimes uttered to give an order. One
of illustrations is drawn through the passage below: Give me back
everything my mother gave you, you ungrateful slave! (Buchi Emecheta,
1977: 145). In this sentence, the verb is utilized without a noun phrase at the
beginning (explaining the imperative form) to produce a vocative effect towards
readers. And the noun phrase «you ungrateful slave girl» which forms
the sentence is put at the end to express the speaker's state of mind or to
result in her behaviour. In that case «you ungrateful slave»
indicates the person whom the addresser is speaking to.
A few sentences expressing the conative function are elliptic:
«Order in the court» or Silence in this court» (Buchi
Emecheta, 1977: 15). Actually, this imperative has a social connotation in the
sense it is especially used by the speaker in the court to require somebody
involved in the legal action to do something or refrain from doing something.
It is announced to attract the audience`s attention and invite receivers avoid
making noise.
The conative function appears mainly in independent sentences.
It expresses a wish addressed by the speaker towards the receiver as
exemplified in the passage below:
«May the spirit of your dead father guard you,»
they said, and touched the heads of the children and gave each a few
cowries. (Buchi Emecheta, 1977: 24)
The conative function in this sentence is expressed by the
modal verb «may». It implies incantation during ritual events. But
this sentence is addressed to an imaginative character.
Also, the conative function is observed throughout Miss
Victoria's speech addressed to Ojebeta:
«Get your clothes basket, girl! Did my mother not buy
you one? Come and get it. Don't waste time! (Buchi Emecheta, 1977: 143)
Actually, this passage clearly explains an order given by the
speakers to the interlocutor. This also explains the addresser's state because
she is in hurry and angry. Put otherwise, the use of the imperative explains
that the speaker wants to get reaction from the receiver.
Apart from imperatives, apostrophe -an abrupt interpellation -
expresses also the conative function as exemplified in these utterances:
Ojebeta watched for a wile, feeling disinclined to go and play
with her friends, and then she called out: «Mother, Mother come here. I
want to have a suck.» (Buchi Emecheta, 1977: 22)
From this statement, it is relevant to note that the phrase
expressing the conative function is «come here». This apostrophe
implies the speaker's need to have something done by the interlocutor.
Additionally, in this passage, Buchi Emecheta raises a social aspect. As far as
sociolinguistics is concerned, it seems impolite to a child to give orders to
elders. Actually, communication has got norms. The way people interrelate
depends on the sex, the age and the status of whom interaction takes place.
The directive value explains the characters' feelings or wish
addressed towards receivers. In that case, the speaker employs an imperative
sentence to address to an interlocutor to obtain what he needs. In The
Slave Girl, the conative function is mainly represented by the use of
imperative and vocative sentences.
To sum up this chapter, the language functions in The
Slave Girl meet different purposes: to express feelings, emotions and
state of minds of characters. As a matter of fact, speech almost occurs in a
context rich in information that is provided by means of physical movement,
culture gestures, emotional expressions, and intonation.
Language functions are all described into language forms which
will be examined in the following chapter.
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