Social and Functional Significance of Language: Case Study with Reference to English and Tamil

Abstract

Language has two sides from the points of view of its structure and use since it has social and functional significance in its everyday application. The significance and relevance are interdependent, as one cannot think of a language without a society by which it is used, and vice versa. The functional aspect of language is imperative in the formal and informal contexts starting from the home domain. Mainly, there are two styles of language a human being possesses - 'careful speech style' and 'casual speech style' - which is chosen contextually. Language has a well defined structure but for a few exceptions. These structural similarities and distinctive variations/differences have to be explicitly made known to the learners especially in ELT or TLT.